Canadian Market Recovers After Weak Start, Down Marginally At Noon

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market is down marginally a little past noon on Wednesday with investors largely making cautious moves amid concerns about inflation and interest rates after data showed a bigger than expected increase in Canadian consumer prices in April.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index, which dropped to 20,158.69, was down 27.42 points or 0.14% at 20,214.87 a few minutes past noon.

Materials, consumer staples, utilities and industrials shares are among the notable losers. Energy and healthcare stocks are finding support. A few stocks from the financials section are also up in positive territory with notable gains.

Nutrien (NTR.TO) is down 2.5%. Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM.TO) is declining 2.1%, while Emera Inc (EMA.TO), Kinaxis Inc (KXS.TO), Agnico Eagle Mines (AEM.TO) and Metro Inc (MRU.TO) are down 1.7 to 2%.

Fortis Inc (FTS.TO), Canadian National Railway (CNR.TO), Franco-Nevada Corporation (FNV.TO), Descartes Systems Group (DSG.TO), Constellation Software (CSU.TO) and Thomson Reuters Corporation (TRI.TO) are down 1 to 1.6%.

Lightspeed Commerce (LSPD.TO) is rising more than 8%. AutoCanada (ACQ.TO) is gaining 7.5%, Tucows Inc (TC.TO) is up 5.7% and Air Canada (AC.TO) is surging 5.3%.

Lithium Americas Corp (LAC.TO), Bombardier Inc (BBD.B.TO), Goeasy (GSY.TO), BRP Inc (DOO.TO), TFI International (TFII.TO), Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO) and Fairfax Financial Holdings (FFH.TO) are gaining 1 to 4%.

Data from Statistics Canada showed car registrations in Canada increased to 150,956 units in March from 109,781 units in February of 2023.