Canadian Market Ends Notably Lower For 2nd Straight Session

(RTTNews) - Despite coming off the day's lows, the Canadian stock market ended on a very weak note on Monday, as rising worries about the impact of the fast spreading variants of the coronavirus on economic recovery.

Crude oil's sharp plunge following the OPEC+ agreeing on an output increase triggered a sell-off in the energy section, contributing significantly to market's tumble.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index, which plummeted to 19,605.94, losing about 380 points in the process, eventually ended the session with a loss of 259.09 points or 1.3% at 19,726.45. On Friday, the index ended nearly 1% down.

The Capped Energy Index shed 3.8% as energy stocks plunged after crude oil futures fell nearly 8% on oversupply worries. Parex Resources (PXT.TO), Whitecap Resources (WCP.TO), Vermilion Energy (VET.TO), Arc Resources (ARX.TO), Crescent Point Energy (CPG.TO), Suncor Energy (SU.TO), Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO) and Enerplus Corp (ERF.TO) lost 4 to 7%.

In the materials section, Hudbay Minerals (HBM.TO) ended more than 7% down. Interfor Corp (IFP.TO) declined nearly 7% and First Quantum Minerals (FM.TO) ended 6.1% down. Several other stocks, including Teck Resources (TECK.B.TO), Turquoise Hill Resources (TRQ.TO), MAG Silver Corp (MAG.TO) and Methanex Corp (MX.TO) also ended sharply lower.

Financial shares Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO), National Bank of Canada (NA.TO), Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS.TO), Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO) and Fairfax Financial Holdings (FFH.TO) declined 2 to 3%.

Real estate, industrials and consumer discretionary shares were among the other prominent losers.

Information technology stocks Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO), Kinaxis Inc (KXS.TO) and Absolute Software Corp (ABST.TO) gained 3.05%, 1.83% and 1.52%, respectively.

In the U.S. market, the major averages regained some ground going into the close but remained firmly negative. The Dow plunged 725.81 points or 2.1%, the Nasdaq slumped 152.25 points or 1.1% and the S&P 500 ended down 68.67 points or 1.6%.

The major European markets closed sharply lower, and markets across the Asia-Pacific region too ended mostly weak.