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TORONTO, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Canada's main stock market in Toronto slipped slightly Tuesday as resources stocks pulled back with underlying commodity price uncertainty while the smaller technology sector made some gains.
The Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index lost 7.79 point, or 0.05 percent, to close at 14,524.61 points. Five of the TSX index's eight main sub-sectors were lower.
Oil prices ended lower Tuesday as investors awaited the U.S. Energy Information Administration's inventory data scheduled for release Wednesday.
U.S. WTI light sweet crude for August delivery dropped 0.59 U.S. dollar to settle at 44.65 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for September delivery fell 0.30 dollar to close at 46.66 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
On TSX index, the most influential weights included Suncor Energy, which fell 1.08 percent to 35.80 Canadian dollars (27.48 U.S. dollars), and Brookfield Asset Management Inc., which declined 0.20 percent to 45.63 Canadian dollars.
First Quantum Minerals fell 4.13 percent to 9.98 Canadian dollars, and Teck Resources tumbled 6.02 percent to 17.47 Canadian dollars. Fertilizer company Agrium Inc. fell 1.99 percent to 122.50 Canadian dollars.
On the positive side, Open Text Corporation rose 3.19 percent to 80.19 Canadian dollars after two analysts raised their price targets for the software company.
BlackBerry Ltd. shed 0.34 percent to 8.68 Canadian dollars as the Canadian smartphone maker said Tuesday it had signed a five-year, multi-million-dollar deal to run emergency notifications for the U.S. Senate, among a handful of small deals the company unveiled as it shifts its focus to software from smartphones.
Barrick Gold Corp. added 0.43 percent to 28.09 Canadian dollars and TransCanada rose 0.33 percent to 60.58 Canadian dollars.
The International Monetary Fund cut its global growth forecasts for the next two years on Tuesday, citing uncertainty over Britain's looming exit from the European Union.
The outlook for Canada's economy is little changed either this year or next, with a 0.1 percent downward revision this year and a 0.2 percent upward revision for 2017.
The Canadian dollar traded lower at 0.7676 U.S. dollar, compared with Monday's closing rate of 0.7730 U.S. dollar. Enditem
