TSX Recovers After Mid-session Setback, Ends Just Marginally Down

(RTTNews) - After a weak start and a subsequent fall to lower levels, the Canadian market staged a recovery and briefly emerged into positive territory in late afternoon trades on Wednesday, but still ended the session on a negative note, albeit with a marginal loss.

Investors digested a 25-basis point interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve and noted Fed Chief Jerome Powell's comments. The Fed said it anticipates ongoing increases in interest rates will be appropriate in order to attain a stance of monetary policy that is sufficiently restrictive to return inflation to 2% over time.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended lower by 16.33 points or 0.08% at 20,751.05, well off the day's low of 20,579.49.

Technology, consumer discretionary, materials, healthcare and real estate stocks moved higher, while energy and consumer staples shares closed notably lower.

The Energy Capped Index shed 2.8%. Enerplus Corp (ERF.TO), Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO), Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO), Crescent Point Energy (CPG.TO), Imperial Oil (IMO.TO) and Vermilion Energy (VET.TO) lost 3 to 4%.

Consumer staples shares Loblaw Co (L.TO), Metro Inc (MRU.TO), Empire Co (EMP.A.TO) and Weston George (WN.TO) lost 2 to 3.1%.

Technology stock Hut 8 Mining Corp (HUT.TO) soared nearly 12%. BlackBerry (BB.TO) rallied 5.5%, while Quarterhill (QTRH.TO), CGI Group (GIB.A.TO), Lightspeed Commerce (LSPD.TO) and Payfare Inc (PAY.TO) gained 3 to 4.2%.

In the consumer discretionary sector, Linamar Corp (LNR.TO) climbed 5.7%. Brp Inc (DOO.TO), Magna International (MG.TO) and Canadian Tire Corp (CTC.A.TO) gained 3.6 to 4.25%.

Materials shares Silvercrest Metals (SIL.TO), Oceanagold (OGC.TO), Fortuna Silver Mines (FVI.TO), Methanex Corp (MX.TO), Torex Gold Resources (TXG.TO), Ssr Mining (SSRM.TO), Equinox Gold Corp (EQX.TO) and Eldorado Gold (ELD.TO) gained 3 to 4%.

Tilray Inc (TLRY.TO), up 2.8%, was the biggest gainer in the Healthcare Index. Bausch Health Companies (BHC.TO), Bellus Health Inc (BLU.TO) and Canopy Growth Corp (WEED.TO) gained 1.2 to 1.8%.

Real estate stocks Granite Real Estate Investment Trust (GRT.UN.TO), Interrent Real Estate (IIP.UN.TO), First Capital REIT Units (FCR.UN.TO) and CDN Apartment (CAR.UN.TO) posted strong gains.

On the economic front, the S&P Global Canada Manufacturing PMI rose to 51 in January 2022 from 49.2 in the previous month.