By Commodity News Service Canada
WINNIPEG, March 21 – The Canadian dollar ended flat against
its US counterpart on Tuesday, as traders looked ahead to the
release of tomorrow’s federal budget.
The budget isn’t expected to move markets dramatically but
it does serve as a benchmark for the Bank of Canada to gauge
potential stimulus measures.
The Canadian dollar closed at C$0.7486 or US$1=C$1.3359,
compared to Monday’s close of C$0.7488 or US$1=C$1.3354.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index suffered significant losses on
Tuesday amid a broad selloff in the equity market.
Toronto’s energy group fell by 1.6%. Weak prices for crude
oil weighed down Canadian oil giants Suncor and Encana.
Advances in gold bullion mitigated the losses.
The index dropped 129.19 points, or 0.8%, to 15,313.13.
Canada’s agricultural sector performed as follows:
AGT Food and Ingredients—–up $ 1.03 at $ 32.67
Agrium Incorporated———-dn $ 1.61 at $126.30
Buhler Industries————up $ 0.05 at $ 4.60
Maple Leaf Foods————-up $ 0.15 at $ 31.67
Potash Corp. of Sask———dn $ 0.30 at $ 22.69
(All figures are in Canadian dollars.)
