Toronto stocks closed lower Monday, as retreating oil prices put pressure on energy stocks. The S&P/TSX composite index ended the session down 43.01 points, or 0.48%, at 8,825.73 on volume of 223 million shares.

Energy issues were off 1.19% on retreating oil prices.

Oil prices slipped to below US$49.09 as analysts forecast another increase in U.S. crude supplies ahead of the weekly inventory data expected on Wednesday.

Ensign Resource Services Group fell 75¢, or 3.31%, to $21.91 after the company reported slightly lower third-quarter earnings.

Talisman Energy dropped 84¢, or 2.63%, to $31.16. Petro-Canada gave up $1.10, or 1.73% to close at $62.50

Seven of the 10 TSX groups closed lower. Health care was the biggest loser falling 1.56%.

The heavily weighted financial services group slipped 0.21%. Manulife Financial fell 31¢ to $54.52, while Bank of Nova Scotia slipped 8¢ to $39.02 and TD Bank shed 12¢ to $48.10. AGF Managements fell 16¢, or 1%, to $15.46.

Among the day’s most actively traded issues, Stelco slipped 1¢ to $1.22 on volume of 10 million shares, as investors waited word of a potential rights offering to creditors that would raise capital for the restructuring company but could render its shares worthless.

Investment dealer GMP Capital Corp. has offered to finance a $215 million equity injection for Stelco. That’s just one of many proposal the steelmaker has received in recent weeks.

Nortel Networks added 14¢, or 3.40%, to $4.26

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index was 9.40 points lower at 1,627.27.

The Canadian dollar surged on Monday, briefly touching US84¢ as market players digested remarks by Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge on Sunday. Dodge said the currency’s recent strength was not a surprise and had not hurt exports.

The dollar later came off that high and closed at US83.75¢, up a quarter of a cent from Friday’s close.

On Wall Street, U.S. markets closed mostly unchanged as investors digested big post-election gains and turned their attention to this week’s Federal Reserve meeting.

The Dow Jones industrial average finished up 3.77 points, or 0.04%, to end at 10,391.31, based on the latest data. The S&P 500 fell 1.28 points, or 0.11%, to close at 1,164.89. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index edged up just 0.31 of a point, or 0.02%, to finish at 2,039.25.

Pfizer weighed on the Dow and the S&P 500 after the drug company said it is talking with regulators over changing the label of its Bextra arthritis drug to warn of a potentially deadly skin reaction.