Corruption Charges and SNC-Lavalin

Canadian dollar: Falling oil helped push the Canadian dollar down 0.52 of a U.S. cent to 80.01 cents.A major decliner was SNC-Lavalin on news that the RCMP has laid fraud and corruption charges against the engineering firm and two of its subsidiaries, according to The Toronto Star. The charges follow an investigation into business dealings in Libya and allegations that they paid millions of dollars to public officials.SNC says it will plead not guilty but its shares fell $3.08 or seven per cent to $40.63 amid worries that a conviction could result in problems in bidding for work. The S&P/TSX composite index dropped 32.42 points to 15,180.33. Another Quebec company was also under the microscope — transport giant Bombardier is issuing $750 million in new equity by issuing 339.4 million subscription receipts exchangable for its Class B shares at $2.21 each. The move comes a week after it said the cost of developing its new C-Series airliner has soared to $5.4 billion from $4.23 billion a year ago.U.S. indexes were mainly lower with the Dow Jones industrials down 44.08 points at 17,985.77 and the S&P 500 index off 2.23 points at 2,097.45. Its shares were halted about an hour before the close when they were down seven cents or 2.8 per cent to $55.93 on heavy volume of 8.1 million shares. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.