Toronto stocks closed lower Thursday as oil prices fell in the wake of a foiled terrorist plot in the United Kingdom.

The S&P/TSX composite was down 49.1 points, or 0.4%, to 11,959.05.

Energy stocks, which make up more than 30% of the main index’s overall weighting, fell 1%.

Crude-oil prices retreated on worries that the scheme to blow up airliners flying between the U.K. and the U.S. could end up cutting passenger travel, which would curtail demand for aviation fuel.

The September contract for light sweet crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange lost $2.35 to US$74 a barrel.

Imperial Oil Ltd. slipped 41¢ to $44.61.

Airline stocks also fell sharply, but many had recovered by the close.

Air Canada parent Ace Aviation Holdings moved up 86¢ to $27.90, while WestJet was down 19¢ to $9.77.

The TSX gold sub-group fell 1.75% as the October price for bullion in New York moved down $15.80 to US$639.70 an ounce.

Kinross Gold Corp. shed 26¢ to $14.24.

The technology group gained 2.4% as Research in Motion Ltd. jumped $6.81 to $83.43.

The TSX Venture composite index dipped 16.93 points, or 0.64%, to 2,632.24.

The Canadian dollar closed down 0.47 of a cent to US88.79¢ even as Statistics Canada said the trade surplus came in at a better-than-expected $4.7 billion in June.

In the United States, the trade deficit improved slightly in June as record sales of U.S. farm products and other exports blunted the impact of high oil prices.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial index was up 48.19 points, 0.44%, to 11,124.37. The Nasdaq composite index rose 11.46 points, or 0.56%, to 2,071.74, while the S&P 500 index added 5.86 points, or 0.46%, to 1,271.81.