Oct. 15, 2009 (Baystreet.ca) --

Canadian stocks finished nominally lower on Thursday amid weakness in the gold sector. The market had gained more than 1% yesterday. Shortly before the closing bell, the S&P TSX Composite index was down 29.34 points to 11,503.44. Gold stocks have slipped as the precious metal has come off its record highs. Royal Gold lost 2.9% to $48.52, Seagold was off 2.5% to $26.64 and Eldorado stepped backwards 2.4% to $12.37. Mining stocks were down, as HudBay dropped 2.3% to $15.02 and Teck Resources fell 1.9% to $33.69. In corporate news, Keystone North America Inc rallied 20.3% to $7.76 after the company announced it has agreed to be acquired by Service Corp. International for approximately $256 million including outstanding debt. Manulife Financial tailed off 1.1% to $22.23 after the company said it acquired Pottruff & Smith Travel Insurance Brokers Inc., a broker and third party administrator of travel insurance across Canada. Vasogen added 1.8% to 28.5 cents after the company reported third-quarter net loss of $1.2 million or $0.05 per share, compared to a net loss of $2.6 million or $0.12 per share last year. Groupe Distinction gained 5% to $1.89 after the company announced third-quarter net earnings of $2.0 million or $0.064 per share compared with $1.9 million or $0.06 per share in the same quarter last year. A&W Revenue Royalties Income Fund's added 1.4% to $14.34 after the company announced its third-quarter net earnings increased to $2.698 million from $2.694 million posted in the same period a year earlier. On a per-share basis, earnings were $0.324, compared with $0.323 last year. On the economic front, Canadian manufacturing shipments fell 2.1% in August. A decline of 1.6% was forecast for August, compared to a revised increase of 5.2% in July. The Canadian dollar plummeted 0.81 cents to 96.67 cents U.S. ON BAYSTREET All but three of the 14 TSX subgroups were lower. Gold was the worst off, losing 1.7%, while materials and metals and mining stocks tailed off 1% each. The three gainers were energy stocks, ahead 0.5%, consumer staples, scratching out a gain of 0.3%, and industrials, nosing up 0.1%. The TSX Venture Exchange slipped 8.30 points to 1,328.40, while the Nasdaq Canada index lost 7.13 points to 728.88. ON WALLSTREET In New York, stocks turned mixed Thursday as investors mulled better-than-expected results from Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, conflicting economic indicators and rising oil prices. Even so, the Dow Jones Industrials worked its way into positive territory, picking up 47.08 points to 10,062.94. The S&P 500 index advanced 4.53 points to 1,096.55. The Nasdaq composite index gained back 1.06 points to 2,173.29. Financials led the morning losses, but shares of energy producers rallied late in the day, with Chevron and ExxonMobil both adding more than 1%, as oil prices pushed above $77 U.S. a barrel.