The Canadian market experienced a significant downturn on Monday, despite initially showing signs of recovery from early declines. The downward movement was largely driven by losses in the materials, technology, and consumer sectors. Additionally, stocks in the healthcare, real estate, and industrial sectors ended the trading session on a weaker note.
Investor sentiment was dampened by several factors, including tariff threats from U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, uncertainty surrounding interest rates, and ongoing geopolitical tensions.
According to data from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, the CFIB's Business Barometer, which indicates the 12-month outlook for business performance in Canada, decreased to 56.4 in December. This is a drop from the revised figure of 59.8 in the previous month, which marked the highest level since mid-2022.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index fell by 175.81 points, or 0.71%, closing at 24,620.59. This was notably above the intraday low of 24,491.51.
In the materials sector, the Materials Capped Index declined by 1.78%. Significant losses were recorded for companies such as MAG Silver Corp, Seabridge Gold, Pan American Silver Corp, Equinox Gold Corp, SSR Mining, B2Gold Corp, Hudbay Minerals, Ivanhoe Mines, and Eldorado Gold, with declines ranging from 2.3% to 4%.
Technology sector stocks also suffered, with Coveo Solutions, Dye & Durham, Lightspeed Commerce, BlackBerry, Tecsys Inc, Shopify Inc, Docebo Inc, Celestica Inc, Constellation Software, and Kinaxis Inc seeing declines between 1.2% and 3.4%.
In the consumer discretionary sector, stocks like Gildan Activewear, Mty Food Group, Restaurant Brands International, and Magna International experienced significant decreases.
Maple Leaf Foods, representing the consumer staples sector, saw its shares fall by approximately 2.2%. George Weston, Alimentation Couche-Tard, and Loblaw also ended the day with declines of 1% to 1.5%.
Conversely, the energy sector performed well, with Birchcliff Energy and Advantage Oil & Gas rising by 5.6% and 5.3%, respectively. Other energy stocks, such as Tourmaline Oil Corp, Arc Resources, Topaz Energy, Peyto Exploration, Precision Drilling Corp, and Nuvista Energy, also registered gains ranging from 2% to 4.5%.
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company -
www.instaforex.com
