TSX Comes Off 20-month High, Ends Moderately Lower

(RTTNews) - Canadian stocks closed lower on Tuesday, weighed down by losses in materials and financials sectors.

The mood remained cautious with investors awaiting U.S. inflation data and earnings updates from major U.S. banks.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index, which tumbled to 20,880.43 in early trades, ended the day's session at 20,970.98, recording a loss of 103.93 points or 0.49%.

Healthcare stock Tilray Inc (TLRY.TO) ended more than 9% down. Bausch Health Companies (BHC.TO) ended 0.8% down.

Materials shares Nutrien (NTR.TO), Ero Copper (ERO.TO), New Gold Inc (NGD.TO), Lundin Mining (LUN.TO), First Quantum Minerals (FM.TO), Novagold (NG.TO), Capstone Mining Corp (CS.TO) and Teck Resources (TECK.B.TO) lost 2.5 to 4%.

K92 Mining Inc (KNT.TO) soared nearly 10% after the company announced that it generated 39,101 oz AuEq or 33,309 oz gold, 2,728,623 lbs copper and 56,502 oz silver in the fourth quarter. Sales during the quarter were 31,931 oz gold, 2,995,585 lbs copper and 61,712 oz silver.

In the financials sector, Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO) and Nuvei Corp (NVEI.TO) lost 4.4% and 4%, respectively. Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO), Manulife Financial (MFC.TO), CDN Western Bank (CWB.TO) and Fairfax Financial Holdings (FFH.TO) ended lower by 1 to 1.5%.

Technology stocks Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) and Alithya Group (ALYA.TO) gained 3.4% and 3.3%, respectively. Enghouse Systems (ENGH.TO), Docebo Inc (DCBO.TO), Kinaxis Inc (KXS.TO) and Softchoice Corp (SFTC.TO) advanced 1 to 1.5%.

Blackberry (BB.TO) climbed more than 2.5% after Dutch auto manufacturer Stellantis N.V. (STLA) announced the launch of a virtual cockpit platform that will use the QNX Hypervisor from Canadian software company, BlackBerry.

The platform will enable the delivery of infotainment tech to customers that is expected to be 100 times faster than previous processes.

On the economic front, data from Statistics Canada showed the nation recorded a trade surplus of C$ 1.6 billion in November of 2023, narrowing considerably from the C$ 3.2 billion surplus in the previous month. Exports edged down 0.6% to $65.74 billion in the month, while imports increased 1.9% to C$64.2 billion.

Another data from Statistics Canada showed the total value of building permits in Canada fell by 3.9% from a month earlier to $10.9 billion in November 2023, reversing an upwardly revised 3% growth in the preceding month.