Equities in Canada’s biggest market fell for a fourth consecutive trading session on Monday, as global markets retreated on rising anxiety the U.K. will vote to exit the European Union.
The S&P/TSX Composite leaned lower 43.66 points Monday to 13,993.88
The Canadian dollar fell 0.16 cents to 78.11 cents U.S.
Penn West Petroleum Ltd. jumped 45 cents, or 38.8%, the most since 1992, to $1.61, after the oil and gas explorer agreed to sell all of its Saskatchewan assets for $975 million in cash to Teine Energy Ltd.
Including other assets in Alberta, Penn West will raise $1.1 billion, with the company now expecting to be "comfortably in compliance" with its financial covenants at the end of the second quarter and the remainder of the year.
Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd. surged 48 cents, or 13%, the most in a month, to close at $4.16, after parent Rio Tinto Group was reported to hire Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to help privatize its copper unit. Rio Tinto is seeking to increase its stake in Turquoise Hill while selling the remaining shares in the company to a strategic buyer, according to the Sunday Times, without saying where it got the information.
Health-care issues sank, as Valeant Pharmaceuticals dropped 28 cents to $30.52, while rival Concordia Healthcare descended 67 cents, or 2.2%, to $29.68.
In real-estate, Brookfield Property Partners units fell 12 cents to $30.88.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange remained above breakeven 0.28 points to 715.87
Nine of the 13 TSX subgroups were lower on the day, with real-estate and health-care sliding 1.2% each, while industrials fell 0.9%.
The four gainers were led by metals and mining, marching ahead 3.1%, materials, up 0.8%, and gold better by 0.6%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks closed lower Monday, as investors looked ahead to the week's scheduled Fed meeting and the upcoming U.K. vote on whether to leave the European Union.
The Dow Jones Industrials tumbled 132.86 points to 17,732.48, with Visa, Microsoft and Apple contributing the most to declines as most constituents traded lower.
The S&P 500 lost 17.01 points at 2,079.06. Tech was among the greatest S&P decliners.
The NASDAQ retreated 46.11 points to 4,848.44
Shares of Microsoft fell 2.5% to $50.17 U.S., after news released just before the market open that the tech giant is purchasing LinkedIn for $196.00 U.S. per share in an all-cash transaction valued at $26.2 U.S. billion that is expected to close this calendar year.
Shares of LinkedIn jumped 46.7% to $ in afternoon trade to $192.29 U.S.
In other deal news, technology security firm Symantec, which makes the Norton antivirus, said it would buy privately-held cybersecurity company Blue Coat for $4.65 billion U.S.
Apple briefly fell more than 1.5% and continued to trade about 1% lower amid its annual Worldwide Developers Conference.
The latest Brexit poll, released midday ET Monday by The Guardian, showed a gain in the "leave" camp over the "remain."
Prices for the 10-year Treasury gained, lowering yields to 1.61% from Friday’s 1.64%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices lowered 55 cents a barrel to $48.52 U.S.
Gold prices gained $11.20 to $1,287.10 U.S. an ounce.
