The Canadian stock market ended on a weak note on Monday, weighed down by losses in healthcare, information technology and industrials sections.
Strong gains in energy shares thanks to a a sharp surge in crude oil prices helped limit market's decline. A few stocks from the materials shares moved higher as bullion prices rose.
The mood was cautious amid worries about growth, rising inflation and high bond yields. Concerns about the impact of China Evergrande's financial woes on the world's second largest economy weighed as well.
The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index, which dropped to a low of 19,968.48, ended with a loss of 98.62 points or 0.49% at 20,052.25, the lowest level since July 20.
The Capped Information Technology shed 2.75%. Lightspeed Pos (LSPD.TO) declined 8.5%. Nuvei Corp (NVEI.TO) and Kinaxis Inc (KXS.TO) ended lower by 4.4% and 4.25%, respectively. Descartes Systems (DSG.TO), Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO), Sierra Wireless (SW.TO), Absolute Software (ABST.TO) and Celestica Inc (CLS.TO) also declined sharply.
The Capped Healthcare Index dropped nearly 3%. Tilray Inc (TLRY.TO) and Canopy Growth Corp (WEED.TO) both lost more than 4%. Cronos Group (CRON.TO), Well Health Technologies (WELL.TO), Organigram Holdings (OGI.TO) and Bausch Health Companies (BHC.TO) shed 2.4 to 3%.
Ballard Power Systems (BLDP.TO), Cargojet (CJT.TO), Snc-Lavalin (SNC.TO), Ats Automation (ATA.TO) and Cae Inc (CAE.TO) were among the major losers in the industrials section.
Energy stocks Enerplus Corp (ERF.TO), MEG Energy Corp (MEG.TO), Crescent Point Energy (CPG.TO), Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO) and Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO) ended lower by 3 to 4.2%.
Materials stocks Ivanhoe Mines (IVN.TO), Novagold (NG.TO), Centerra Gold (CG.TO), Torex Gold Resources (TXG.TO), Lundin Mining (LUN.TO), B2Gold Corp (BTO.TO) and Kinross Gold Corp (K.TO) moved up sharply.
Sun Life Financial Inc. (SLF.TO) shares gained about 2.5%. The company said that it agreed to acquire DentaQuest for US$2.475 billion or about C$3.1 billion. The company noted that the transaction will be financed using a combination of cash and debt, and that it expects to complete the deal in the first half of 2022.
On the economic front, data released by Statistics Canada showed the value of building permits in Canada declined 2.1% from a month earlier to C$ 9.7 billion in August, following an upwardly revised 4.1% drop in the previous month.
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