Canadian Stocks Firmly Down In Negative Territory On Growth Worries

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market is down firmly in negative territory Tuesday afternoon, weighed down by losses in energy, technology and financial sectors.

Worries about rising inflation and looming interest rate hikes continue to prompt investors away from riskier assets. The focus is on the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement, due on Wednesday.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index is down 210.37 points or 1.07% at 15,532.19.

Utilties stocks are among the major losers. Transalta Renewables Inc (RNW.TO) is down more than 5% and Northland Power (NPI.TO) is declining nearly 4%, while Algonquin Power (AQN.TO), Boralex (BLX.TO), Fortis (FTS.TO) and Altagas (ALA.TO) are down 2.7 to 3.5%.

Communications shares BCE Inc (BCE.TO), Corus Entertainment (CJR.B.TO) and Rogers Communications (RCI.B.TO) are down 3.6%, 2.2% and 2%, respectively. Telus Corp (T.TO) is down nearly 2%.

In the energy section, Birchcliff Energy (BIR.TO) is down 8%, Advantage Oil & Gas (AAV.TO) is declining 6.3%, Peyto Exploration (PEY.TO) and Tourmaline Oil Corp (TOU.TO) both are down nearly 6%, while Topaz Energy (TPZ.TO), Parex Resources (PXT.TO) and Crescent Point Energy (CPG.TO) are lower by 3 to 5%.

Among technology stocks, Kinaxis Inc (KXS.TO), Softchoise Corp (SFTC.TO), Absolute Software Corp (ABST.TO) and Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) are down 3 to 4%.

On the economic front, data from Statistics Canada said car registrations in the country decreased to 143,148 units in April from 144,597 units in the previous month.

Another data from Statistics Canada showed manufacturing sales in Canada rose by 1.7% from a month earlier to C$ 72.3 billion in April of 2022, slowing from an upwardly revised 3.5% advance in the previous month but faster than a preliminary estimate of 1.6%. It was the seventh straight month of growth in manufacturing sales.