Toronto market falls to nearly 4-month low as seasonal pressures weigh

By Fergal Smith

(Reuters) - Canada's main stock index fell to a near four-month low on Wednesday as industrial and financial shares led broad-based declines in a seasonally weak period for the commodity-linked market.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index ended down 94.4 points, or 0.4%, at 21,516.90 in lower than usual volumes, with U.S. markets closed for the Juneteenth holiday.

It was the lowest closing level for the TSX since Feb. 29. The index is down 3.4% since the start of the month.

Historical seasonal patterns show the TSX is weak in the month of June, said Sid Mokhtari, chief market technician for CIBC Capital Markets.

"There is a tactical buy opportunity for the month of July just given how many things are getting oversold but I don't necessarily believe we are going to be resuming a re-trending bias (upward) at this point," Mokhtari said.

The TSX's recent decline has come despite gains on Wall Street. The benchmark S&P 500 on Tuesday notched a record closing high.

All ten major sectors on the Toronto market lost ground on Wednesday, with industrials falling nearly 1% and heavily weighted financials ending 0.5% lower.

The interest rate sensitive real estate sector lost 0.7% as the Bank of Canada said it considered the merits of waiting for an extra month to start cutting interest rates before it decided to ease monetary policy on June 5.

Energy was down 0.2% as the price of oil retreated from an earlier seven-week high, dipping 0.1% to $81.47 a barrel.

(Reporting by Fergal Smith in Toronto and Purvi Agarwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Chris Reese)