People walk at the headquarters of Alibaba in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, April 23, 2014.CHANCE CHAN/Reuters
The Toronto stock market was lower Friday, pulled down by all sectors, with the heaviest weights being the metals and mining, gold and materials sectors.
The S&P/TSX composite index dropped 179.1 points to 15,286.45, while the Canadian dollar dipped 0.30 of a cent to 91.12 cents (U.S.).
The declines in the Toronto exchange came despite a rise across most global markets following Scotland's decision to remain part of the United Kingdom.
Fifty-five per cent of Scots voted against independence in the referendum Thursday, compared with 45 per cent in favour of separation. There was an unprecedented turnout of just under 85 per cent.
The news gave relief to investors because it avoids uncertainty in the U.K economy and markets over the future value of the pound and public debt, among other issues.
The vote against independence keeps the United Kingdom from losing a substantial part of its territory, oil reserves and prevents it from having to find a new base for its nuclear arsenal, now housed in Scotland. It had also faced a possible loss of influence within international institutions, including the European Union, NATO and the United Nations.
"It certainly was believed by markets that this was the most profitable outcome," said Kash Pashootan, vice president and portfolio manager at First Avenue Advisory in Ottawa, a Raymond James Company.
"What would've been catastrophic was if the vote was not what it was. In that case, you would've seen markets sell off considerably due to the unknown factor of how things would look moving forward."
He added that now, markets can generally move on from the economic risks associated with Scotland.
"The Scotland story is going to pass. It's not going to be a topic of interest in the short term, with the vote clearly stating that they're going to remain," said Pashootan.
Meanwhile, U.S. markets were mixed amid the stability from the vote and the big debut of Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba.
The Dow Jones industrials was ahead 20.24 points at 17,286.23 after closing at an all-time high on Thursday. The Nasdaq dipped 24.41 points at 4,569.01, and the S&P 500 index took back 0.78 of a point to 2,010.58, above its own record high from the previous day.
Alibaba's stock rose 36 per cent to open at $92.70 on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday morning. At that price the company would be worth $228.5-billion (U.S.) – more than the current market value of tech giants such as Amazon, Cisco, and eBay. Investment bankers arranging the IPO had set an opening price of $68 per share.
In other corporate news, TransCanada Corp. says costs for its long-delayed Keystone XL pipeline will likely balloon to as much as $10-billion, up from $5.4-billion.
CEO Russ Girling told the Wall Street Journal that the price tag could rise to a "number that gets you into the high single digits to a 10 number" as the project remains in limbo. Company spokesman Shawn Howard has confirmed those remarks, adding the higher costs will be passed on to refiners and consumers in the end.
Keystone XL would link 830,000 barrels per day of mostly oil sands crude to an existing network that feeds into the lucrative U.S. Gulf Coast refining market.
Environmental concerns over the project range from a potential spill's impact on drinking water to the enabling of further oilsands development and its accompanying increase in greenhouse gas emissions. Backers of the project say it would create construction jobs and displace crude imports to the U.S. from unfriendly regimes. Shares in TransCanada gained more than two per cent, or $1.29, to $62.10 (Canadian) on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
In economic news, Statistics Canada says the country's annual inflation rate was 2.1 per cent in August, unchanged from the previous month. However, core inflation, the number the Bank of Canada closely monitors and which excludes some items from the volatile energy and food categories, rose by 2.1 per cent, after an increase of 1.7 per cent in July.
On the commodity markets, the November crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange was down 99 cents to $92.08 (U.S.) a barrel. December bullion was down $8.80 to $1,218.10 an ounce and December copper was down a penny to $3.08 a pound.