Canadian Stocks Close Modestly Lower After Seeing Early Strength

(RTTNews) - After moving to the upside early in the session, Canadian stocks moved modestly lower over the course of the trading day on Wednesday.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index reached a new record intraday high in early trading before pulling back and ending the day down 36.12 points or 0.2 percent at 20,329.73.

The pullback on Bay Street was partly due to a sell-off by energy stocks, with the S&P/TSX Capped Index plunging by 4.1 percent.

Energy stocks moved sharply lower along with the price of crude oil for September delivery, which plunged $2.41 to $68.15 a barrel following the release of a report showing an unexpected weekly increase in crude oil inventories.

Healthcare stocks also extended the steep drop seen in the previous session, dragging the S&P/TSX Capped Health Care Index down by 2.9 percent.

Most of the other major sectors showed only modes moves on the day, limiting the downside for the broader market.

In economic news, a report from Statistics Canada showed the total value of Canadian building permits spiked 6.9 percent to C$10.3 billion in June.