By Fergal Smith
(Reuters) -Canada’s commodity-linked main stock index ended lower on Friday as the U.S. dollar strengthened but the index still notched its sixth straight weekly gain.
The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index ended down 103.18 points, or 0.5%, at 21,984.08, after posting on Tuesday its first record high closing level in two years.
For the week, the index was up 0.6%. The weekly winning streak was the longest since December 2020.
“Today is a bit of a day off (due to) the strong dollar. Investors are taking some profit off the table in many areas,” said Allan Small, senior investment advisor of the Allan Small Financial Group with iA Private Wealth.
“Whenever you have U.S. dollar strength, it’s not good for commodities. We know our markets are very heavily weighted in that space.”
Resource shares account for roughly 30% of the Toronto market. The materials sector, which includes precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, fell 1% as gold and copper prices fell.
The U.S. dollar notched a second straight week of gains against a basket of major currencies, making commodities priced in the U.S. currency more expensive for buyers using other currencies.
Heavily-weighted financials also lost ground, falling 0.6%, and technology was down 1.1%.
Tilray Brands Inc shares climbed 19.8%, with shares of pot firms jumping as Germany makes cannabis possession legal.
(Reporting by Fergal Smith in Toronto and Shubham Batra and Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore and Alistair Bell)
