TSX Fails To Hold Early Gains, Ends On Weak Note

(RTTNews) - The Canadian stock market faltered after a positive start Monday morning, and despite a subsequent recovery, turned weak and eventually closed on a negative note.

Amid a lack of fresh triggers, activity was mostly stock specific with investors reacting to quarterly earnings and other corporate news.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended with a loss of 110.86 points or 0.57% at 19,361.88, the day's low. The index hit a fresh all-time high of 19,543.88 in early trades.

Healthcare, information technology, energy, materials and consumer discretionary shares were the major losers. Consumer staples and telecom stocks found some support.

The Capped Healthcare Index shed 4.37%. Organigram Holdings (OGI.TO) tumbled more than 9.5%, Aurora Cannabis (ACB.TO) declined 6.1%, Cronos Group (CRON.TO) ended lower by 6% and Aphria Inc (APHA.TO) shed 5.6%. Canopy Growth Corp (WEED.TO), Trillium Therapeutics (TRIL.TO) and Bausch Health Companies (BHC.TO) also declined sharply.

Technology stocks Hut 8 Mining Corp (HUT.TO), Lightspeed Pos (LSPD.TO), Kinaxis Inc (KXS.TO), Sierra Wireless (SW.TO), Enghouse Systems (ENGH.TO) and BlackBerry (BB.TO) lost 4 to 7%. Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO), Dye & Durham (DND.TO), Constellation Software (CSU.TO), Opex Text Corp (OTEX.TO) and Descartes Systems (DSG.TO) ended lower by 2 to 3.1%.

Among energy stocks, Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO) shed 3.2%, MEG Energy (MEG.TO) ended 2.6% down, Parex Resources (PXT.TO) declined 2.25% and Whitecap Resources (WCP.TO) lost 2.1%. Vermilion Energy (VET.TO), Imperial Oil (IMO.TO) and Suncor Energy (SU.TO) also ended sharply lower.

In the materials section, First Quantum Minerals (FM.TO), Silvercorp Metals (SVM.TO), First Majestic Silver Corp (FR.TO), Sivercrest Metals (SIL.TO), Ssr Mining (SSRM.TO), Torex Gold Resources (TXG.TO), New Gold (NGD.TO) and Novagold Resources (NG.TO) lost 3 to 5.1%.

Westshore Terminals Investment Corporation (WTE.TO) shares gained 2.3% after the company said its profit in the quarter increased slightly to $29.6 million in the first quarter of 2021 from $29.1 million during the same period of 2020.