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TORONTO, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- Canada's main stock market in Toronto plunged Tuesday as resources shares dropped sharply after the latest import data from China triggered more concerns about the outlook for the commodities prices.
The Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index declined 119.63 points, or 0.86 percent, to 13,844.73 points on the closing bell.
Resource sectors were falling into negative territory as the latest data from China, the world's second-largest economy, showed that the country's imports plunged in September from a year earlier, causing more concerns that the weakness in commodities including oil and ore products weighed on the TSX index, which is sensitive to the turbulence of the commodities market.
The mining sector nosedived 6.25 percent and the energy sector shrank 2.59 percent as Teck Resources Limited lost 9.35 percent to 8.73 Canadian dollars (about 6.71 U.S. dollars) a share while Canadian Natural Resources Limited tumbled 4.84 percent to 30.49 Canadian dollars per share.
And the most weighed sector Financials also inched lower 0.18 percent as Toronto-Dominion Bank was down 0.15 percent to 52.97 Canadian dollars a share.
The only two sectors in the rising streak were Info Tech and Telecom, which were up 0.46 percent and 0.36 percent, respectively.
However, on the economic front, investors expected that Canada's merchandise export volumes are tracking about 10 percent higher at an annualized rate and import volumes are relatively flatter, according to an report released by Scotiabank last week.
On the currency front, due to the falling commodities prices, the Canadian dollar on Tuesday was lower to 0.7681 U.S. dollar, when compared with 0.7730 U.S. dollar Friday.
