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TSX falls most in three months

TORONTO (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell the most in three months as manufacturing slowed in China and investors speculated the bailout of Greece won't solve Europe's debt crisis.

Teck Resources Ltd., Canada's largest base-metals producer, dropped four percent as copper declined to a two-month low. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., the country's second-largest energy company, lost 2.5 percent as oil futures retreated the most in three months. Toronto-Dominion Bank decreased 1.2 percent as financial stocks slumped the most since January.

The Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index fell 165.65 points, or 1.4 percent, to 12,030.86, the most since February 4. A Chinese purchasing managers' index published by HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics dropped to a six-month low.

"Clearly, there wasn't good news on the Chinese manufacturing number, which has really been where the demand has been coming from," said Greg Eckel, who helps oversee C$900 million ($881 million) as a money manager at Morgan Meighen & Associates Ltd. in Toronto. "If this continues, particularly on the commodity side, we could have a rough little bit ahead of us."

The S&P/TSX has slipped one percent since April 1 as concerns over Greece and other European countries have cancelled out the impact of higher-than-estimated corporate profits. Greece, Ireland, Spain and the UK each had budget deficits of at least 10 percent of gross national product last year, according to the European Union's statistical agency.

The yield on 10-year Greek government bonds increased 90 basis points to 9.4 percent today, indicating some investors are speculating the aid package won't end the continent's fiscal trouble. A basis point is 0.01 percent.

Companies that sell raw materials declined as the Chinese government extended this year's efforts to restrain its economy to control inflation. Energy companies retreated as crude oil slumped four percent.