SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Canadian shares fell Wednesday, dragged down by a more than 4% drop in Barrick Gold Corp. shares after the gold mining giant increased a planned stock sale. The S&P/TSX Composite index (CA:ISPTX 11,071, -34.54, -0.31%) slipped 59 points, or 0.5%, to 11,046, with most sectors in the red. Barrick Gold Corp.'s (CA:ABX 40.76, -1.67, -3.93%) (ABX 37.96, -1.34, -3.41%) Canadian shares fell 4.8% after the Toronto gold miner said it planned to hike the size of a previously announced stock sale to US$3.5 billion, or 94.8 million common shares, from $3 billion, or 81.2 million common shares. It will use the $1.9 billion in net proceeds to eliminate all of its fixed-price gold contracts, and $1.5 billion to eliminate a portion of its floating-price gold contracts. It will record a $5.6 billion charge to earnings as a result of the accounting change. Other gold miners also declined as gold futures eked out a modest gain. Read Metals Stocks. Yamana Gold Inc. (CA:YRI 11.30, -0.06, -0.53%) shares slid 0.2%, while Goldcorp, Inc.'s (CA:G 43.68, -0.63, -1.42%) (GG 40.67, -0.26, -0.64%) Canadian shares fell 1.3%. Canadian bank shares also tumbled, led by 1.4% drop in Bank of Nova Scotia's (CA:BNS 44.00, -0.81, -1.81%) (BNS 41.00, -0.58, -1.40%) stock. The Canadian dollar tipped higher as the U.S. dollar sold off. One U.S. dollar bought C$1.075, down from C$1.0794 late Tuesday.

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