TSX Snaps 14-day Winning Streak

(RTTNews) - The Canadian stock market ended weak on Tuesday, going down after fourteen successive days of gains, with shares from several sectors posting losses as traders looked ahead to the central bank's policy decision and took some profits.

The Bank of Canada is scheduled to announce its monetary policy on Wednesday, while the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan will be releasing their policy statements on Thursday.

The Bank of Canada is widely expected to hold rates for now, but rate hikes look imminent from mid 2022. The bank's views on inflation and growth outlook are expected to provide some direction to the market.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended down 111.39 points or 0.52% at 21,173.45, slightly off the day's low of 21,167.23.

Healthcare, information technology, consumer discretionary and consumer staples stocks were the major losers. Materials stocks closed weak as bullion prices drifted lower. Shares from the rest of the sectors turned in a mixed performance.

Healthcare stocks Tilray Inc (TLRY.TO), Canopy Growth Corp (WEED.TO) and Organigram Holdings (OGI.TO) shed 2.7 to 3.1%. Aurora Cannabis (ACB.TO) declined nearly 2%, while Cronos Group (CRON.TO) and Bausch Health Companies (BHC.TO) both ended lower by about 1.6%.

Information technology stocks Sierra Wireless (SW.TO) and Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) declined 4.8% and 4.4%, respectively. Kinaxis Inc (KXS.TO), Alithya Group (ALYA.TO), Lightspeed Pos (LSPD.TO) and TecSys Inc (TCS.TO) ended lower by 2 to 3%.

Brp Inc. (DOO.TO), down 8%, was the biggest loser in the Consumer Discretionary Index. Among consumer staples shares, Sunopta Inc (SOY.TO) shed 4.7%, while Alimentation Couche-Tard (ATD.B.TO) and Jamieson Wellness (JWEL.TO) lost 2.5% and 2.4%, respectively.

Materials stocks Capston Mining Corp (CS.TO) and First Quantum Minerals (FM.TO) shed 4.7% and 3.8%, respectively, ahead of earnings announcements.

West Fraser Timber (WFG.TO) declined 3.1%. The company announced that it would acquire Georgia Pacific owned oriented strand board or OSB mill, located near Allendale, South Carolina for about $280 million in cash.

Energy stocks Parex Resources (PXT.TO), Vermilion Energy (VET.TO), Whitecap Resources (WCP.TO) and Birchcliff Energy (BIR.TO) ended lower by 1.2 to 1.8%.

Among financials, Laurentian Bank (LB.TO) climbed 2.4%, while Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO), Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO), Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS.TO), CDN Western Bank (CWB.TO), National Bank of Canada (NA.TO) and Sun Life Financial (SLF.TO) gained 0.7 to 1%.