By Alastair Sharp
TORONTO, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index was
slightly lower on Tuesday, with shares in oil and gas companies
weighing and consumer stocks helping keep the index near its
previous close.
The Toronto Stock Exchange was closed on Monday, a public
holiday in most of Canada, when U.S. indexes slipped on weaker
oil prices.
Oil prices steadied on Tuesday, but failed to lift the
Toronto market's oil and gas sector. Among the big decliners in
the group, pipeline company TransCanada Corp TRP.TO lost 1.5
percent to C$50.09 and major producer Suncor Energy Inc SU.TO
fell 1 percent to C$36.48.
The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index
.GSPTSE was down 6.68 points, or 0.05 percent, at 14,461.76 by
11:00 a.m (1500 GMT).
The index has bounced back up since breaking below 14,000 in
late July, but remains one of the worst performing global
indexes so far this year, hurt by slumping oil prices and
worries about slowing economic growth and stock market turmoil
in China.
"China's hurting all these commodities and if there's more
of a flare up there it will be reflected in our market because
it's so heavily commodity-weighted," said John Kinsey, portfolio
manager at Caldwell Securities.
Half of the index's 10 main groups were in negative
territory, although both the consumer discretionary and consumer
staples groups gained more than 1 percent.
Auto parts maker Magna International Inc MG.TO rose 2.5
percent to C$72.83 and convenience store operator Alimentation
Couche-Tard ATDb.TO gained 2 percent to C$59.51.
Decliners outnumbered advancing stocks by 140 to 101, for a
1.39-to-1 ratio on the downside.
Kinsey said he is focused on upcoming quarterly results from
a range of companies including Magna, telecom companies BCE Inc
BCE.TO and Telus Corp T.TO , insurer Sun Life Financial Inc
SLF.TO , energy company Canadian Natural Resources CNQ.TO and
retailer Canadian Tire Corp CTCa.TO .
"What we look for is forward guidance toward the next
quarter and the balance of the year," he said. "A lot of the
companies are a little reluctant now to give that now because
everything is so volatile."
($1=$1.31 Canadian)
(Editing by Peter Galloway)