Oct. 30, 2009 (Baystreet.ca) --

Canadian stocks fell sharply lower in Friday afternoon trading, mirroring drops seen in the U.S. and Europe. Traders also mulled data showing the Canadian gross domestic product unexpectedly fell in August. Scant minutes before the closing bell, the S&P/TSX composite index had plummeted 194.89 points, or 1.8%, to 10,880.33. Mining stocks fell as copper saw a notable decline on the Comex. Inmet lost 5.5% to $57.73, HudBay was down 4% to $14.01 and First Quantum dropped 2.2% to $74.05. Among gold stocks, New Gold plunged 4.4% to $3.90, Agnico-Eagle Mines was down 5.4% to $57.88 and Iamgold dropped 1.8% to $14.21. Centerra Gold went down 0.9% to $8.42 after the company reported its third-quarter net earnings were $20.2 million U.S., 20% higher than $16.9 million U.S. in the previous year. Earnings per common share for the recent quarter grew 15% to $0.09 U.S. from $0.08 U.S. a year ago. Eldorado declined 2% to $11.96, although the company reported its third-quarter net income of $30.15 million U.S. or $0.08 U.S. per share, compared with $17.04 million U.S. or $0.05 U.S. per share last year. Energy stocks also lost ground, as Suncor dropped 3.5% to $35.67 and Canadian Oil Sands is down 1.2% to $29.10. Telecommunications stocks were up after the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission ruled Globalive Wireless does not meet Canadian ownership laws to become the nation's fourth major cellphone provider. Rogers Communications climbed 2.6% to $31.78, Telus added 3.4% to $33.97 and BCE advanced 1.1% to $25.89. In other corporate news, Tim Hortons lost 3.3% to $30.75 after the company announced third quarter net income attributable to Tim Hortons of $61.18 million or $0.34 per share, compared to $78.76 million or $0.43 per share last year. Domtar Corp. added 7.7% to $45.34 after the company reported net earnings of $183 million U.S. or $4.24 U.S. per share for the third quarter, compared to $43 million U.S. or $1.00 U.S. per share for the third quarter of 2008. GLG Life Tech Corp. gained 2.5% to $2.85 after the company said its third-quarter net income after income taxes and non-controlling interests was $1.39 million compared with a loss of $950,000 in the comparable period. The company reported earnings per share of $0.02 versus a loss per share of $0.01 for the quarter. Cogeco Cable dropped 4.1% to $30.94 after the company said its fourth-quarter net income increased to $46.57 million or $0.96 per share from $31.86 million or $0.65 per share in the prior-year period. Economically speaking, Statistics Canada reported real gross domestic product fell 0.1% in August. GDP was expected to rise 0.1%, after being flat in July. The Canadian dollar retreated 1.26 cents to 92.43 cents U.S. ON BAYSTREET All but one of the 14 TSX subgroups were in negative territory to finish the day.