Toronto stocks finished down Tuesday, and the Canadian dollar lost ground, as falling resource prices weighed down the energy and materials sectors, and the Bank of Canada held its key overnight rate unchanged.

The S&P/TSX composite index fell 35.04 points, or 0.27%, to 12,720.32. Six of the 10 TSX main sub-groups were down.

The energy sector fell 1.48%.

Light, sweet crude for February delivery sank $1.78, or 3.4%, to close at US$51.21.

Imperial Oil Ltd. fell $1.35, or 3.45%, to $37.77.

The materials sector dropped 0.65%, while the gold sub-sector fell 0.87%.

Gold fell $1.00 to close at $625.90 an ounce on a stronger U.S. dollar.

Iamgold Corp. declined 5¢, or 0.49%, to $10.16.

The financials sector moved ahead 0.34%. Toronto-Dominion Bank rose by 47¢, or 0.68%, to $69.27 as TD Ameritrade, in which TD Bank has a 40% position, announced a 69% increase in profits for the first quarter compared to the same period last year.

Meanwhile, the Canadian dollar fell 0.73 of a cent to US84.98¢, as the market reacted to the drop in commodity prices.

In announcing it was leaving the interest rate at 4.25%, the Canadian central bank said it expected a strengthening in the growth rate of the domestic economy later this year.

The S&P TSX Venture composite index lost 26.91 points, or 0.93%, to 2,865.32.

In New York, markets were mixed as investors responded to the dropping price of oil and selected negative corporate earnings reports.

The Dow Jones industrial average finished up 26.51 points at 12,582.59, the S&P 500 inched ahead 1.17 points to 1,431.90, while Nasdaq composite index lost 5.04 points to 2,497.78.