Canadian Market Pares Early Gains; Healthcare, Technology Stocks Stay Firm

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market is turning in a mixed performance Thursday afternoon, after having surged higher earlier in the day, aided by gains in healthcare, technology and industrials sectors.

Several stocks from real estate, utilities and financials sections are also finding good support, while energy, materials and consumer staples shares are weak.

In addition to digesting the rate decisions by the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and the European Central Bank, investors are also focusing on earnings updates from Canadian companies.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index is up marginally at 20,752.39, after having surged to 20,843.21 earlier in the session.

The Healthcare Capped Index is up 3.4%. Tilray Inc (TLRY.TO) is rising more than 6%, Canopy Growth Corp (WEED.TO) is gaining about 5%, Bausch Health Companies (BHC.TO) and Chartwell Retirement Residences (CSH.UN.TO), both are up 3.75%, while Cronos Group (CRON.TO) is gaining 2.5%.

In the technology sector, Hut 8 Mining Corp (HUT.TO) is soaring nearly 17%. Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) is up 8.4% and Payfare Inc (PAY.TO) is climbing 6.5%.

Converge Technology Solutions (CTS.TO), Evertz Technologies (ET.TO), BlackBerry (BB.TO), Nuvei Corp (NVEI.TO), Celestica Inc (CLS.TO) and Kinaxis Inc (KXS.TO) are up 3.75 to 5%.

Among industrials shares, Ballard Power Systems (BLDP.TO), Cargojet (CJT.TO) and Tfi International (TFII.TO) are up 4 to 5.2%. Richelieu Hardware (RCH.TO), Westshore Terminals (WTE.TO), Cae Inc (CAE.TO), Gfl International (GFL.TO), Badger Infrastructure (BDGI.TO) and Mullen Group (MTL.TO) are gaining 2.3 to 3.2%.

Energy stock Precision Drilling Corp (PD.TO) is down more than 7%. Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO), Suncor Energy (SUN.TO), Imperial Oil (IMO.TO) and Whitecap Resources (WCP.TO) are down 3 to 4.2%.

In the materials space, Torex Gold Resources (TXG.TO), First Quantum Minerals (FM.TO), Hudbay Minerals (HBM.TO), Filo Mining (FIL.TO), Lundin Mining (LUN.TO), B2Gold Corp (BTO.TO) and Eldorado Gold (ELD.TO) are down 3 to 7%.

BCE Inc (BCE.TO) is down 2.5%. The company reported fourth-quarter net earnings of $567 million, down 13.8% from net earnings of $658 million from a year ago.

Rogers Communications Inc. (RCI.A.TO) reported adjusted net income of $554 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2022, compared with adjusted net income of $486 million in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. The stock is up marginally.

Lightspeed Commerce Inc. (LSPD.TO) is down more than 5%. The company reported adjusted net loss of $814.8 million for the quarter ended December 2022, compared with adjusted net loss of $65.5 million in the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year. Net loss includes a non-cash goodwill impairment charge of $748.7 million.

On the economic front, the total value of building permits in Canada decreased by a bigger than expected 7.3% from a month earlier to C$ 10.3 billion in December of 2022, data from Statistics Canada showed.