TORONTO – The Canadian dollar was lower Wednesday despite a better than expected reading on retail sales during February.

The loonie was down 0.11 of a cent to 90.57 cents US as Statistics Canada said sales rose 0.5 per cent to $41 billion. Economists had generally expected a 0.4 per cent rise. Ex-autos, sales advanced 0.8 per cent.

At the same time, the agency sharply revised downward the sales reading for January. It said that sales rose by 0.9 per cent, less than the original 1.3 per cent increase.

Also, the revised ex-autos figure for January showed a 0.5 per cent gain, which is half of the initial estimate.

Traders also digested weak Chinese economic data.

Factory activity in China shrank for the fourth straight month in April, though the decline was slightly slower. The preliminary version of HSBC’s purchasing managers’ index edged up 48.3 from March’s 48.0 on a 100-point scale on which numbers above 50 indicate expansion.

On the commodity markets, June crude in New York slipped 22 cents to US$101.53 a barrel.

May copper was down one cent to $3.04 a pound while June bullion gained $4.60 to US$1,285.70 an ounce.