The Canadian stock market ended weak on Wednesday, as falling bullion prices triggered a sell-off in the materials section. Losses in and healthcare stocks hurt as well.
Save for a very brief while at the start, the market remained in red. The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index, which plunged to a low of 18,248.31 in early trades, ended the session with a loss of 100.93 points or 0.55% at 18,320.67.
The Information Technology Index slid 3.65%. Docebo Inc. (DCBO.TO), Absolute Software Corp (ABST.TO) and Shopify Inc. (SHOP.TO) lost 6.5 to 7.1%. Lightspeed Pos (LSPD.TO) declined more than 5%, while Sierra Wireless (SW.TO), Kinaxis Inc. (KXS.TO), Blackberry (BB.TO), Descartes Systems (DSG.TO) and CGI Inc. (GIB.A.TO) ended lower by 2.5 to 4%.
Healthcare stocks Canopy Growth Corp (WEED.TO), Aurora Cannabis (ACB.TO and Aphria Inc. (APHA.TO) lost 5.4%, 4.8% and 3.8%, respectively. Cronos Group (CRON.TO) declined 2.7%.
In the materials section, MAG Silver Corp (MAG.TO), Silvercorp Metals (SVM.TO), New Gold (NG.TO), Silvercrest Metals (SIL.TO), Pan American Silver (PAAS.TO), Ssr Mining (SSRM.TO), B2Gold Corp (BTO.TO) and Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM.TO) lost 2.8 to 6.5%.
Energy stocks had a good outing. Several stocks from the section, including Vermilion Energy (VET.TO), Parex Resources (PXT.TO), Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO), MEG Energy (MEG.TO) and Prairiesky Royalty (PSK.TO) posted strong gains.
Sleep Country Canada Holdings (ZZZ.TO), up nearly 11%, was the biggest gainer in the consumer discretionary sector. The stock rose on strong earnings. The company reported on Tuesday that its net income increased by 89.4% or $12.6 million from $14.0 million in the fourth quarter 2019 to $26.6 million in fourth quarter 2020.
On the economic front, data from Statistics Canada showed building permits in Canada increased 8.2% to an all-time high of C$ 9.9 billion in January, beating forecasts for a 3.5% increase.
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