TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada’s main stock index fell on Tuesday as lower commodity prices weighed on the shares of materials and energy companies.
- The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index .GSPTSE closed down 72.93 points, or 0.45 percent, at 16,298.88.
- Losses for the index came as the recent rally on Wall Street paused.
- The materials group, which includes precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, fell 1.2 percent, while the energy group retreated 1.9 percent.
- The most influential weights included oil and gas producer Encana Corp ECA.TO, which fell 5 percent to C$16.72.
Barrick Gold Corp ABX.TO declined 3.1 percent to C$18.88 and diversified miner Teck Resources Ltd TECKb.TO was down 4.1 percent at C$37.06.
- Gold slipped from a four-month high reached on Monday as the U.S. dollar clawed back some lost ground, while copper and nickel hit multi-week lows. Crude prices also pulled back after recent gains.
- BlackBerry Ltd BB.TO fell 1.7 percent to C$17.18 despite launching cyber-security software that identifies vulnerabilities in programs used in self-driving cars.
- Eight of the index’s 10 main groups ended lower.
- Yellow Pages Ltd Y.TO advanced 0.7 percent to C$8.27 after the company, once well known for its thick-print directories, said it would fire about 500 employees to cut costs and turn around its digital advertising platform.
- SSR Mining Inc SSRM.TO jumped 12.3 percent to C$11.48 after the precious metal miner reported fourth-quarter earnings and provided guidance for 2018.
- Constellation Software Inc CSU.TO climbed 6.9 percent to C$787.87 after its Harris Operating Group acquired Acceo Solutions for C$250 million.
Reporting by Fergal Smith and Alastair Sharp; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Peter Cooney
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