Canada's main stock market Friday dropped as big banks lost ground over the oil plunge and jobs data also weighed on the trading sentiment. Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index gave back 72.80 points, or 0.5 percent, to 14,384.92 points, following a two-day recovery, with all the eight weighed sectors in the red across the board.

The index was dragged down as the most weighed sector financials tumbled 1.44 percent when investors were worried about the impact of the oil plunge on big Canadian banks. The biggest lender, Royal Bank of Canada, declined 1.71 percent to 77.48 Canadian dollars (about 65.29 U.S. dollars), Toronto-Dominion Bank fell 1.2 percent to 52.59 Canadian dollars and Bank of Montreal also vapored 1.62 percent to 78.27 Canadian dollars per share.

On the economic front, investors were concerned about a rise in unemployment rate due to big scale layoff in some giant oil producers although Statistics Canada reported Friday that Canada's unemployment rate remained at 6.6 percent in December.

Some analysts said the impact on labor market by the oil plunge may bring more risks to Canada's economic growth in the first half year of 2015.

Weighed by the dropping oil prices, the resource sectors including energy and metals and mining, down 0.76 percent and 0.79 percent respectively, followed the losing streak and helped hammered down the TSX index.

Suncor Energy Inc. declined 1.03 percent to 35.61 Canadian dollars and Surge Energy Inc. dived 4.97 percent to 2.87 Canadian dollars per share.

However, the gold group, a subsector of the metals and mining sector, bucked the trend with S&P/TSX Global Gold Index jumping 4. 6 percent, stimulated by the gold price rally on the weaker U.S. dollar.

The gold giants Barrick Gold Corp. and Yamana Gold Inc. advanced 1.95 percent to 13.04 Canadian dollars and 5.79 percent to 5.3 Canadian dollars apiece, respectively.

As for the currency, the Canadian dollar edged down to 0.8427 U. S. dollar on Friday, compared with 0.8449 U.S. dollar on Thursday, due to the investors' concern about the job market in the coming week. Endite

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