Canadian Market Down Sharply On Widespread Selling

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market is down sharply Thursday afternoon with stocks from across several sectors reeling under a severe bout of selling pressure.

Worries about growth amid rising interest rates continue to hurt sentiment. Data showing much stronger than expected growth in U.S. private sector employment has raised concerns the Fed will resume raising interest rates.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index is down 305.30 points or 1.52% at 19,798.59.

Selling is so widespread that all the sectoral indices are down in negative territory.

Energy, materials, technology, financials and healthcare stocks are among the major losers.

The Energy Capped Index is down 2.25%. Precision Drilling Corp (PD.TO) is down nearly 5%, while Imperial Oil (IMO.TO), Baytex Energy (BTE.TO), Suncor Energy (SU.TO), Vermilion Energy (VET.TO), Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO), Paramount Resources (POU.TO) and Crescent Point Energy (CPG.TO) are down 2.2 to 4%.

The Materials Capped Index is down 1.9%. Interfor Corp (IFP.TO), Filo Mining (FIL.TO), Canfor Corp (CFP.TO), Kinross Gold (K.TO), Tech Resources (TECK.B.TO), Lithium Americas Corp (LAC.TO) and Hudbay Minerals (HBM.TO) are down 3 to 4.2%.

Among technology stocks, BlackBerry (BB.TO) is down more than 5% and Lightspeed Commerce (LSPD.TO) is declining 4.4%. Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO), Docebo Inc (DCBO.TO), Enghouse Systems (ENGH.TO), Softchoice Corp (SFTC.TO) and Celestica Inc (CLS.TO) are lower by 2 to 3%.

In the financials section, Nuvei Corp (NVEI.TO), Brookfield Asset Management (BAM.TO), Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO), Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS.TO), CDN Western Bank (CWB.TO), Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO) and Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO) are down 1.4 to 3.7%.

In economic news, data from Statistics Canada showed Canada posted a trade deficit of C$3.44 billion in May 2023, shifting from a downwardly revised surplus of C$0.89 billion in the prior month.

Exports slumped by 3.8% in the month to an 18-month low of C$61.5 billion, while imports rose by 3% over a month to $64.97 billion.