Canadian Market Ends Weak

(RTTNews) - The Canadian stock market ended notably lower on Thursday after staying weak right through the day's session.

Materials shares tumbled as bullion prices fell sharply. Gold futures for December settled at $1,756.70 an ounce, losing $38.10 or about 2.1%, the biggest loss since August 6 in percentage terms and the lowest close in over five weeks.

Silver futures for December ended down by $1.007 or 4.2% at $22.794 an ounce, the lowest settlement about ten months, while Copper futures for December settled at $4.2815 per pound, down $0.1250 or about 2.8% from the previous close.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index with opened with a negative gap of about 30 points at 20,663.42, it remained the day's high, settled with a loss of 91.69 points or 0.44% at 20,602.10. The index dropped to a low of 20,555.11 in the session.

The Capped Materials Index shed 2.98%. Endeavour Silver Corp (EDR.TO), Oceanagold Corp (OGC.TO), Fortuna Silver Mines (FVI.TO) and Lundin Mining Corp (LUN.TO) lost 6 to 7%. Lithium Americas Corp (LAC.TO), Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM.TO), MAG Silver Corp (MAG.TO) and Ssr Mining (SSRM.TO) drifted down by 5 to 7%.

The Consumer Discretionary Index declined 1.25%. Magna International (MG.TO) ended 4.7% down and Linamar Corp (LNR.TO) drifted down 3.2%, while Brp Inc (DOO.TO) and Canada Goose Holdings (GOOS.TO) ended lower by 1.8% and 1.25%, respectively.

The Energy Index drifted down 0.93%. Crescent Point Energy (CPG.TO) declined nearly 5%, while Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO), Imperial Oil (IMO.TO), Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO), MEG Energy (MEG.TO) and Whitecap Resources (WCP.TO) lost 1.4 to 2%.

Information Technology stocks found support. Nuvei Corp (NVEI.TO) surged up 6.6%, Alithya Corp (ALYA.TO) gained 5% and Hut 8 Mining Corp (HUT.TO) rallied 4.4%. Sierra Eireless (SW.TO), Tecsys Inc (TCS.TO) and Lightspeed Pos (LSPD.TO) also closed with strong gains.

Canada added 39,400 jobs from July to August of 2021, data from Automatic Data Processing Inc. showed. In July, the economy had added 221,300 jobs.

Data from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation showed housing starts in Canada decreased to 260,200 units in August from 270,700 units in July.