TSX Ends Weak As Energy, Materials Shares Post Sharp Losses

(RTTNews) - The Canadian stock market closed weak on Thursday, dragged down by heavy losses in energy and materials shares after crude oil and bullion prices tumbled on dollar's surge.

Hectic buying in the information technology space helped limit market's downside.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index, which fell to a low of 20,083.75, ended the session with a loss of 86.92 points or 0.43% at 20,144.04.

The Capped Energy Index tumbled 4.41%. Vermilion Energy (VET.TO), Crescent Point Energy (CPG.TO), Enerplus Corp (ERF.TO), Tourmaline Oil Corp (TOU.TO), Imperial Oil (IMO.TO), Arc Resources (ARX.TO), Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO) and MEG Energy (MEG.TO) shed 4 to 6.25%.

The Capped Materials Index declined nearly 4%. Yamana Gold (YRI.TO), Iamgold (IMG.TO), Ssr Mining (SSRM.TO), Barrick Gold Corp (ABX.TO), Methanex Corp (MX.TO), B2Gold Corp (BTO.TO) and Kinross Gold Corp (K.TO) lost 5 to 8%.

Information technology stocks Lightspeed Pos (LSPD.TO), Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO), Alithya Group (ALYA.TO), BlackBerry (BB.TO) and Kinaxis Inc (KXS.TO) gained 4 to 7.5%.

In economic news, data from ADP showed employment in Canada increased by 101,600 jobs in May, after rising by 101,300 jobs (revised) in the previous month.

The U.S. dollar's sharp uptick following the Federal Reserve's projections that interest rates might be hiked by 2023 weighed on commodity prices today.

West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended down by $1.11 or about 1.5% at $71.04 a barrel.

Gold futures for August ended down by $86.60 or about 4.7% at $1,774.80 an ounce, suffering their biggest one-day drop in percentage terms this year.

Silver futures for July closed lower by $1.956 or about 7% at $25.856 an ounce, while Copper futures for July settled at $4.1780 per pound, down $0.2070 or 4.7% from the previous close.