Canadian stocks slide over eurozone worries

Canada's main stock index closed down Friday to conclude January's trading amid the worries from eurozone. Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index declined 0.29 percent or 40.34 points to 13,694.94, with most of the major sectors giving back from Thursday's gains. Eurostat, the EU's statistical office, predicted eurozone's annual inflation to be 0.7 percent in January 2014, below half of target level made by the European Central Bank. It was expected that the inflation would be controlled at just below 2 percent. The data was seen by some analysts as a signal that the eurozone may encounter a deflation situation which will hurt the economy, as in that case consumers may delay purchases and traders may postpone investment. The statistics of Canada's monthly GDP also helped push down the TSX. According to Statistics Canada, the GDP merely increased 0.2 percent in November, down from a 0.3 percent-rise in October. The metals shares suffered the second consecutive slide by 1.65 percent, leading the decliners, due to the slump in the basic metals prices. Teck Resources Ltd., Canada' s metals producer of copper, zinc and lead, lost 2.56 percent to close at 28.16 Canadian dollars per share. Cameco Corp., the Saskatchewan-based uranium miner, moved down 3.7 percent to 23.67 Canadian dollars after the company said it is selling its share of the Bruce Power nuclear partnership in southwestern Ontario to Borealis Infrastructure for 450 million Canadian dollars. The financial shares were down 0.93 percent with Bank of Nova Scotia declined to 61.10 Canadian dollars by 1.12 percent, and Manulife Financial Corporation lost 1.53 percent to 20.55 Canadian dollars in its share price. On currency front, the Canadian dollar depreciated against U.S. dollar Friday to close at 0.8988 U.S. dollars, compared with 0.8956 U.S. dollar in Thursday's trading.