(Adds details, updates prices)
* TSX falls 128.39 points, or 0.98 percent, to 12,914.44
* All of the TSX's 10 main groups lose ground
TORONTO, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index hit a
more than 15-week low on Tuesday as crude oil prices fell to
their lowest since 2009, leading to broad retreats in the
resource-linked market.
The biggest weight on the index were the major banks, which
last week all reported a rise in bad loans in the energy sector
from a year earlier. Investors worried that this could turn into
more writedowns and losses.
Royal Bank of Canada RY.TO fell 1.5 percent to C$74.28,
and Toronto-Dominion Bank TD.TO declined 1.2 percent to
C$53.42. Insurer Manulife Financial Corp MFC.TO lost 1.7
percent to C$21.46.
At 10:08 a.m. EST (1508 GMT), the Toronto Stock Exchange's
S&P/TSX composite index .GSPTSE was down 128.39 points, or
0.98 percent, at 12,914.44, its weakest since Aug. 24.
That August low came in the midst of a global market rout
that pulled Chinese stocks down 9 percent and sent commodity
prices tumbling. The S&P/TSX has been under 13,000 points only
once since then and before that not since October 2013.
All 10 main sectors lost ground on Tuesday. Five stocks
declined for every gainer, and 46 set 52-week lows.
The energy group retreated 0.5 percent, while financials
lost 1.2 percent, and the industrials group fell 2.1 percent.
Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd CP.TO declined 4 percent to
C$169.10 after it revised its bid for Norfolk Southern Corp (N:NSC)
NSC.N and was promptly rejected again.
Rival Canadian National Railway Co CNR.TO fell 1.5 percent
to C$72.87.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc (N:VRX) VRX.TO added 0.6
percent. Reuters reported that the company was seeking potential
buyers for its specialty contact lens manufacturing division,
according to two sources.
Earlier on Tuesday, U.S. crude oil CLc1 fell below $37 per
barrel and Brent LCOc1 below $40 for the first time since
early 2009 on fears that the world was running out of storage
capacity as a global glut intensifies. O/R