Canadian Market Down Sharply In Negative Territory As Selling Continues

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market is languishing deep down in negative territory Thursday afternoon with stocks from across several sectors reeling under sustained selling pressure amid mounting worries about growth and looming aggressive policy tightening by central banks.

Materials and energy stocks are down sharply, weighed down by falling commodity prices. Several stocks from the financial sector are also sharply lower, reacting to weak earnings news from Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan Chase.

Healthcare stocks are up with strong gains. A few stocks from the industrial section too have rallied sharply.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index, which tanked to 18,169.86, is down 272.22 points or 1.46% at 18,342.97.

Precision Drilling (PD.TO), Methanex Corp (MX.TO), Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO), Tourmaline Oil Corp (TOU.TO), Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CM.TO), Rogers Communications (RCI.A.TO), Nutrien (NTR.TO), National Bank of Canada (NA.TO) and Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO) are down 2.5 to 6%.

Fairfax Financial Holdings (FFH.TO), Franco-Nevad Corp (FNV.TO), First Quantum Minerals (FM.TO), Kinross Gold (K.TO), Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO), Baytex Energy (BTE.TO), Barrick Gold Corp (ABX.TO), Suncor Energy (SU.TO), Crescent Point Energy (CPG.TO) and Lundin Mining (LUN.TO) are also down sharply.

Tilray Inc (TLRY.TO) is soaring nearly 14%. Aurora Cannabis (ACB.TO) is zooming 12.5%, Canopy Growth Corp (WEED.TO) is climbing 8% and Cronos Group (CRON.TO) is rising nearly 5%.

On the economic front, data from Statistics Canada showed manufacturing sales in Canada fell 2% month-on-month in May, after rising by an upwardly revised 2.6% in April.