Canadian Market Down In Negative Territory; Materials Shares Decline

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market remains in negative territory a little past noon on Thursday after opening marginally down amid concerns about high inflation and possibility of policy tightening by the Bank of Canada.

Materials shares are the prominent losers. Healthcare stocks are finding support. A few stocks from the technology sector are also notably higher.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index is down 122.22 points or 0.6% at 20,174.21 nearly half an hour past noon.

The Materials Capped Index is down more than 2%. Equinox Gold Corp (EQX.TO), Oceanagold Corp (OGC.TO), Iamgold Corp (IMG.TO), Fortuna Silver Mines (FVI.TO), Barrick Gold Corporation (ABX.TO), Pan American Silver Corp (PAAS.TO), Osisko Gold Royalties (OR.TO), K92 Mining Inc (KNT.TO), Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM.TO), Eldorado Gold (ELD.TO) and Kinross Gold Corp (K.TO) are down 3 to 5.2%.

Healthcare stock Bausch Health Companies (BHC.TO) is soaring 10.5%, extending gains after closing sharply higher on Wednesday. Tilray Inc (TLRY.TO) is gaining about 2.3%.

Coveo Solutions (CVO.TO), up nearly 4%, is the top gainer in the technology sector. Quarterhill Inc (QTRH.TO), Open Text Corp (OTEX.TO), Celestica Inc (CLS.TO), Docebo Inc (DCBO.TO) and Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) are up 1 to 2%.

Lightspeed Commerce (LSPD.TO) is plunging 14% on weak results. The company reported fourth quarter FY23 net loss of $74.5 million, as compared to a net loss of $114.5 million in the year-ago quarter.

In economic news, data from Statistics Canada showed new home prices in Canada fell by 0.1% month-on-month in April of 2023, following a flat reading in the prior month. Year-on-year, new home prices in Canada fell by 0.2% in April of 2023, the first decline since November 2019, after rising 0.2% in the prior month.