TSX Posts Biggest Single-session Drop In Over 2 Years

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market suffered its worst single-session loss in more than two years on Thursday as stocks tumbled amid mounting fears of a possible recession in the foreseeable future due to aggressive policy tightening by central banks.

Following the Federal Reserve's announcement of a 75-basis point hike in interest rate on Wednesday, the Bank of England and the Swiss National Bank raised their lending rates today, aiming to fight the soaring inflation.

Energy, consumer discretionary, real estate, healthcare, technology, financials and industrials stocks plunged sharply. Several stocks from other sectors too took a severe beating.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended with a loss of 607.50 points or 3.1% at 19,004.06, after dropping to a low of 18,952.69.

None of the sectoral indices made it to positive territory today. The Materials Index, which suffered a notable loss of nearly 1%, was the least hit in the sell-off. The Energy Capped Index drifted down 5.3%. The indices tracking the performances of stocks from communications, technology, healthcare, consumer discretionary and real estate sectors shed 3.3 to 5%.

Several stocks from financials, industrials, utilities and consumer staples sectors too closed sharply lower.

CargoJet (CJT.TO) ended more than 19% down. Canadian Tire Corporation (CTC.TO) and Nuvei Corporation (NVEI.TO) ended lower by 14% and 10.7%, respectively.

Magna International (MG.TO), Precision Drilling (PD.TO), Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO), Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO), West Fraser Timber (WFG.TO), Goeasy (GSY.TO), Kinaxis Inc (KXS.TO) and Colliers International (CIGI.TO) declined 5 to 8%.

Agnico Eagle Mines (AEM.TO), Newcrest Mining (NCM.TO), Enghouse Systems (ENGH.TO), Barrick Gold Corporation (ABX.TO) gained 2.5% to 5%.

On the economic front, data released by Statistics Canada showed wholesale sales in Canada dropped 0.5% month-over-month to C$ 79.8 billion in April of 2022, well below preliminary estimates of a 0.2% increase.