TSX Ends Moderately Lower

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market ended on a weak note on Thursday after languishing in negative territory right through the day's session.

Concerns about interest rate resurfaced after data showed a bigger than expected increase in U.S. producer prices. Some disappointing earnings updates from Canadian companies hurt as well.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended with a loss of 113.97 points or 0.55% at 20,606.42. The index, which touched a low of 20,531.48 in early trades, recovered to 20,706.16 later on in the session, but dropped almost 100 points from there subsequently.

Technology stocks declined sharply, pushing the Information Technology Capped Index by 5.23%. Energy stocks were the other major losers. Materials and consumer discretionary stocks found some support, while shares from rest of the sectors ended mixed.

Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) plunged nearly 16%. Shopify posted earnings per share of 7 cents in the fourth quarter. The company expects year-on-year revenue growth in the high-teen percentages, worse than the consensus estimate of a 23% year-over-year growth.

Tecsys Inc (TCS.TO), Softchoice Corp (SFTC.TO) and Lightspeed Commerce (LSPD.TO) shed 5.82%, 4.44% and 4.42%, respectively.

Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO), down 4.46%, was the biggest loser in the Energy Index. Cenovus reported fourth quarter net income of C$784 million or C$0.39 per share compared to a net loss of C$408 million or C$0.21 per share, previous year.

MTY Food Group Inc. (MTY.TO) shares declined sharply on lower earnings. The company reported fourth-quarter net income of $7.1 million, or $0.29 per diluted share, compared with net income of $24.9 million, or $1.00 per diluted share a year ago.

Manulife Financial (MFC.TO) reported fourth-quarter earnings of C$1.89 billion, or C$0.95 per share, compared with C$2.08 billion, or C$0.1.03 per share in the year-ago quarter. The stock gained about 3.8%.

Canadian Tire Corporation (CTC.TO) gained 5.3% after reporting fourth-quarter net income of C$562.6 million, compared with net income of C$535.7 million in the year-ago quarter.

Teck Resources (TECK.B.TO) climbed nearly 5% on strong volumes. Air Canada (AC.TO) and Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp (AQN.TO) also ended notably higher on huge volumes.