TSX Fails To Hold Early Gains, Ends Modestly Lower

(RTTNews) - After opening on a firm note, the Canadian market slipped into negative territory Friday morning, and stayed weak till the end of the session, and finally ended modestly lower.

The market opened on a positive note, tracking higher crude oil and gold prices, but turned weak as the session progressed as worries about inflation and outlook for interest rates weighed on sentiment.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index, which climbed about 160 points to 19,659.13 in early trades, dropped to a low of 19,435.04 around mid afternoon before finally settling at 19,462.86 with a loss of 37.38 points or 0.19%. The index gained about 1.1% in the week.

Technology and utilities stocks were the major losers. Stocks from real estate, consumer staples and financial sectors too ended mostly lower.

Materials and energy stocks gained on firm bullion and crude oil prices.

Technology stock Softchoice Corp (SFTC.TO) ended nearly 8% down. Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO), Celestica Inc (CLS.TO), Kinaxis Inc (KXS.TO), Lightspeed Commerce (LSPD.TO), Open Text Corp (OTEX.TO), CGI Group (GIB.A.TO) and BlackBerry (BB.TO) lost 1.4 to 4%.

Energy stocks Baytex Energy (BTE.TO), Parex Resources (PXT.TO), International Petroleum (IPCO.TO), MEG Energy (MEG.TO), Vermilion Energy (VET.TO), Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO) and Crescent Point Energy (CPG.TO) gained 2 to 5%.

In the materials sector, K92 Mining Inc (KNT.TO) soared nearly 13%. First Majestic Silver Corp (FR.TO) climbed 9.2%, while Lundin Gold (LUG.TO), Torex Gold Resources (TXG.TO), Pan American Silver Corp (PAAS.TO) and MAG Silver Corp (MAG.TO) gained 6% - 8.7%.