TSX Ends Marginally Down After Cautious Session

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market ended weak on Friday, losing for a third straight session, amid a lack of positive catalysts, but still posted a small weekly gain.

Concerns about slowing growth in China, and a widespread Microsoft outage that hit services from airlines, banks and financial services curbed investors' appetite for risk.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended with a loss of 36.37 points or 0.16% at 22,690.39. The index touched a low of 22,616.17 and a high of 22,770.39 in the session. The index, which hit new all-time high of 22,996.14 on Tuesday, gained 0.1% in the week.

Magna International (MG.TO) and Precision Drilling Corporation (PD.TO) both ended lower by about 3.4%. Methanex Corporation (MX.TO) closed lower by 2.1%.

BRP Inc (DOO.TO), Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM.TO), Franco-Nevada Corporation (FNV.TO) and Boyd Group Services (BYD.TO) lost 1 to 1.5%.

Hut 8 Corp (HUT.TO) rallied 7.5%. goeasy (GSY.TO), Cargojet (CJT.TO), Metro Inc (MRU.TO), George Weston (WN.TO), Loblaw Companies (L.TO) and Onex Corporation (ONEX.TO) gained 1.4 to 3.5%. Descartes Systems Group (DSG.TO) advanced 1%.

Data from Statistics Canada said retail sales in Canada are projected to have dropped by 0.3% from the previous month in June, according to an initial estimate. In May, retail sales plunged 0.8%, the sharpest decline in 14 months.

Industrial producer prices in Canada remained unchanged in June, following an upwardly revised 0.2% in the previous month. The Raw Materials Price Index in Canada fell 1.4% month-over-month in June, following a downwardly revised 1.5% drop in the previous month.