Frankly will be going public on the TSX Venture Exchange via a reverse takeover of a shell company owned by a Toronto merchant bank.Mark Blinch/Reuters
The Toronto stock market moved into negative territory late Monday morning after a brief rally earlier in the session.
The S&P/TSX composite index came off a triple-digit gain to fall 42.25 points to 13,688.80.
The Canadian dollar fell 0.29 of a cent to 86.06 cents (U.S.).
U.S. indexes were also negative with the Dow Jones industrials down 31.79 points to 17,249.04, the Nasdaq down 17.80 points higher to 4,635.80 while the S&P 500 index slipped 3.02 points to 1,999.31 .
The Toronto stock market tumbled 742 points or 5.1 per cent last week, leaving the index well into correction territory, having fallen more than 12 per cent from summertime highs.
The Toronto market's main index is barely 100 points or 0.8 per cent away from where it started the year.
The Dow industrials fell almost four per cent last week.
Energy companies have been the most visible targets of an equity market selloff that gained momentum in late November after the OPEC cartel rejected calls to cut production in order to support prices that have dropped more than 40 per cent since midsummer amid a huge supply and demand imbalance. The energy sector, which had been up 20 per cent year to date in midsummer, is now down 30 per cent.
But other sectors have been hard hit as investors try to gauge the effect of sharply lower oil prices on the Canadian economy. Financials have also taken a hit amid uncertainty about banks' exposure to high-cost energy producers that have borrowed heavily to finance expansion.
The news hasn't been all bad; the consumer staples sector, for example, is up 35 per cent this year, partly because cheaper gasoline prices are leaving people with more discretionary income. And the consumer discretionary group, which includes auto parts manufacturers, has benefitted from a falling Canadian dollar and is ahead 20 per cent .
Meanwhile, oil prices continued to drifted lower after falling 12 per cent last week alone, with January crude off 58 cents to $57.23 (U.S.) a barrel.
The energy sector was little changed. But Talisman Energy was a major advancer with its stock ahead almost 20 per cent to $6.03 (Canadian) after it confirmed Monday it was engaged in discussions with Spanish oil major Repsol regarding a potential transaction. Repsol said separately that its board will discuss a potential bid for 100 per cent of Talisman.
March copper dipped a cent to $2.92 (U.S.) a pound and the base metals component rose 0.9 per cent.
The non-resource sectors were the favourites Monday morning with consumer staples up 1.25 per cent, while the consumer discretionary group climbed 1.1 per cent and telecoms rose 0.55 per cent.
The gold sector was the biggest decliner, down 0.2 per cent with February gold down $12.50 to $1,210 an ounce.
On the economic front, the main event is the Federal Reserve's interest rate announcement on Wednesday. Rates are expected to start rising sometime later in 2015 but the timing is unclear. The Fed has committed to keeping short term rates ultra-low "for a considerable period of time" for several years and markets will look to see if there is any change in that wording.