By Avinash P and Nivedita Balu
Dec 29 (Reuters) – Canada’s main stock index closed lower on Monday as the precious metals rally paused and weighed heavily on mining stocks, starting the last week of the year on a somber note.
The S&P/TSX index closed down 0.32% at 31,896.59 points. However, the benchmark was poised for a gain of about 2% in December, marking its eighth consecutive monthly gain — a streak not witnessed since 2014.
Mining shares led Monday’s losses, giving back some of their yearly gains as the gold sub-index fell 4.02%, while materials shares, down 2.88%.
Gold prices slipped 4.3%, while silver slid 8.3% after touching a record peak above $80 an ounce earlier in the session as investors booked profits amid perceptions of easing geopolitical tensions, which reduced safe-haven buying.
Mining and financial shares have driven TSX’s gains this year, lifting the index to a third consecutive annual gain and its strongest performance since 2009, with a 29% rise.
“This year was phenomenal. That was really driven by two key factors. The mining stocks- gold had a phenomenal year and silver had an even better year. What also helped the TSX was the Canadian bank stocks,” said Alfred Lee, deputy chief investment officer at Toronto-based Q Wealth Partners.
“Because gold and silver have gone on such a phenomenal run this year, I wouldn’t be surprised if we get a short term pullback some point next year,” Lee said.
Shares of Kinross Gold were down 3.6%, while those of Agnico Eagle fell 5.3% and Barrick Mining fell 2.8%. Endeavour Silver closed down 1.9% and Silvercorp Metals fell 3.4%.
Capping the decline, energy shares gained 1.01%, tracking oil prices that rose above 2% as investors weighed Ukrainian peace talks against potential oil supply disruption in the Middle East.
Market participants await Tuesday’s release of U.S. Federal Reserve meeting minutes during an otherwise quiet data week.
(Reporting by Avinash P in Bengaluru; Editing by Shreya Biswas and Nick Zieminski)
