Canadian Market Recovers After Early Setback, Ends Slightly Up

(RTTNews) - After an early sharp setback, the Canadian market slowly regained lost ground on Tuesday and eventually ended the day's session with a small gain.

Weak crude oil prices triggered a sell-off in the energy space, contributing significantly to the market's sharp decline early on in the session.

The mood was cautious amid lingering concerns about Russia-Ukraine conflict and falling crude oil prices. Investors also looked ahead to the Federal Reserve's monetary policy statement, due on Wednesday.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index, which plunged more than 200 points to 20,971.11 in early trades, ended the day with a gain of 7.06 points or 0.03% at 21,187.84.

Technology stocks moved higher, rebounding from recent losses. Energy and consumer staples shares posted sharp losses.

The Capped Information Technology Index climbed up 2.2%. Lightspeed Commerce (LSPD.TO) surged up 8.5%. Nuvei Corp (NVEI.TO), Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) and Docebo Inc (DCBO.TO) gained 7.5 to 7.75%, while Tecsys Inc (TCS.TO), Haivision Systems (HAI.TO), Evertz Technologies (ET.TO), Kinaxis Inc (KXS.TO), Hut 8 Mining (HUT.TO) and Telus International (TIXT.TO) gained 3 to 6%.

Consumer staples shares Saputo Inc (SAP.TO), Empire Company (EMP.A.TO), Alimentation Couche-Tard (ATD.TO), Metro Inc (MRU.TO) and The North West Company (NWC.TO) shed 1.5 to 4.2%.

In the energy section, Suncor Energy (SU.TO), Arc Resources (ARX.TO), Imperial Oil (IMO.TO) and Enerplus Corp (ERF.TO) lost 2.4 to 3.8%.

On the economic front, housing starts in Canada rose by 8% over a month earlier to 247,256 units in February of 2022, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. Urban starts increased by 10% to 222,563 units in February.

Manufacturing sales in Canada rose by 0.6% in January, after increasing by 0.7% a month earlier, according to the data released by Statistics Canada this morning.