TSX Ends Notably Lower On Widespread Selling

(RTTNews) - A day after recording fresh intraday and closing highs, the Canadian market ended notably lower on Wednesday due to heavy selling across the board in late afternoon trades.

The Bank of Canada's comments in the summary of deliberations released today revealed the central bank hasn't ruled out the possibility of another rate increase yet. The bank noted in the summary that it may be necessary to raise rates again to further quash inflation.

A report released by Statistics Canada earlier in the week had showed inflation did not slow down in November, holding steady at 3.1%.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended down 238.82 points or 1.15% at 20,600.81, near the day's low.

All the sectoral indices ended in negative territory. The Materials Capped Index dropped 2.24%, and the Health Care Index drifted down 2.17%. The indices tracking the performance of stocks from technology, real estate, consumer discretionary and utilities sectors ended down 1.2 to 1.7%, while the Energy Capped Index shed a little over 1%.

Lithium Americas Corp (LAC.TO) ended 7.49% down, while Lithium Americas Argentina Corp (LAAC.TO), Endeavour Silver Corp (EDR.TO), Osisko Mining (OSK.TO), First Quantum Minerals (FM.TO) and First Majestic Silver Corp (FR.TO) ended lower by 4 to 6%.

Healthcare stocks Bausch Health Companies (BHC.TO) and Tilray Inc (TLRY.TO) ended down 3.7% and 2.2%, respectively.

Boralex Inc (BLX.TO), Northland Power (NPI.TO), Algonquin Power and Utilities Corp (AQN.TO) and Innergex Renewable Energy (INE.TO) were among the major losers in the utilities section.

Consumer discretionary stocks Gildan Activewear (GIL.TO) and Canada Goose Holdings (GOOS.TO), real estate stocks Storagevault Canada (SVI.TO) and Granite Real Estate (GRT.UN.TO) and technology shares Kinaxis Inc (KXS.TO), Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO), BlackBerry (BB.TO) and Lightspeed Commerce (LSPD.TO) were also among the prominent losers in the session.

Aritzia Inc (ATZ.TO) and Quebecor Inc (QBR.A.TO) gained 3.2% and 3.1%, respectively. Cogeco Inc (CGO.TO), Loblaw Companies (L.TO), Rogers Communications (RCI.A.TO), Cogeco Communications (CCA.TO), Constellation Software (CSU.TO) and BRP Inc (DOO.TO) gained 1 to 1.6%.