By Commodity News Service Canada
WINNIPEG, February 29 – The Canadian dollar finished lower against its US counterpart Monday, with end-of-month trading a key feature in the downturn.
Government figures on GDP performance for December and the fourth quarter of last year are due out on Tuesday. Those figures will be looked at carefully in the leadup to next week’s meeting of the Bank of Canada.
The Canadian dollar closed at US$0.7390 or US$1 = 1.3531 which compared with Friday’s close of US$0.7400 or US$1 = C$1.3514.
The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index ended higher, riding overall strength in commodities. Gold bullion chalked up gains while the energy sector also climbed.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index advanced 61.90 points, or 0.48%, to 12,860.35.
Canada’s agricultural sector performed as follows:
AGT Food and Ingredients—–up $ 0.62 at $ 36.65
Agrium Incorporated———-dn $ 0.48 at $116.51
Buhler Industries————– $ 0.00 at $ 5.03
Maple Leaf Foods————-dn $ 0.09 at $ 22.81
Potash Corp. of Sask———dn $ 0.19 at $ 22.93
(All figures are in Canadian dollars.)
