Canadian Market Ends On Weak Note

(RTTNews) - The Canadian stock market ended on a weak note on Wednesday as investors took some profits after recent strong gains.

The mood in the market remained a bit cautious with investors digesting mixed reports about the effectiveness of existing vaccines against the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

The Bank of Canada's interest rate decision, and geopolitical tensions between the United States and Russia regarding Ukraine were the other factors in focus.

Information technology shares declined sharply. Industrials and consumer discretionary shares were among the other notable losers. Healthcare stocks found support, while shares from other sectors closed mixed.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index, which declined to a low of 21,047.85, finished with a loss of 85.30 points or 0.4% at 21,077.35.

As widely expected, the central bank held its key overnight interest rate at 0.25%. The bank has also maintained its guidance that the first increase could come as soon as April 2022.

Nuvei Corp (NVEI.TO) shares plunged more than 40% after shareholder rights law firm Johnson Fistel, LLP initiated investigating potential violations of the federal securities laws against Nuvei. The law firm was specifically looking into whether Company issued false or misleading statements or failed to disclose information pertinent to investors.

The stock was also hurt by a short call report from Spruce Point Research, which expects a 40%-60% downside for the stock, citing a lack of organic growth and doubts about the chief executive's background.

Enghouse Systems (ENGH.TO), Tecsys Inc (TCS.TO), Docebo Inc (DCBO.TO), Kinaxis Inc (KXS.TO) and Lightspeed Pos (LSPD.TO) also ended sharply lower.

Organigram Holdings (OGI.TO) gained more than 3.5%, while Canopy Growth Corp (WEED.TO) and Aurora Cannabis (ACB.TO) both ended higher by about 2.75%. Cronos Group (CRON.TO) and Tilray Inc (TLRY.TO) gained 1.75% and 1.6%, respectively.