TSX Ends Lower As Investors Take Some Profits Amid Worries About Economic Outlook

(RTTNews) - The Canadian stock market ended weak on Tuesday after staying in negative territory right through the session.

Investors took some profits in cautious trade after the World Bank warned that the global economy will shrink 5.2% this year, representing the biggest contraction since the Second World War.

The World Health Organization's comments that the coronavirus pandemic is "far from over," weighed as well on investor sentiment.

Investors were also looking ahead to the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement, due on Wednesday.

The Fed is unlikely to announce any significant policy changes, although look ahead to the central bank's assessment of the economic outlook. There are some expectations that the bank will announce some more stimulus plans to help the economy stage a fairly quick recovery.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended down 141.17 points or 0.88% at 15,833.74, after tumbling to a low of 15,772.17 intraday.

With several stop stocks from the energy space decling sharply, the Capped Energy Index shed as much as 3.59%. Industrial, financial and utilities shares also declined sharply, resulting in the indices tracking their performances losing 2.1 to 2.5%.

Materials, consumer staples and healthcare stocks too were mostly weak. A few stocks from information technology, communications and consumer discretionary sections moved higher.

Shawcor (SCL.TO) plunged nearly 17% and Air Canada (AC.TO) declined by about 10.2%. Chorus Aviation (CHR.TO) ended 9.5% down, while Husky Energy (HSE.TO), Mty Food Group (MTY.TO), Vermilion Energy (VET.TO) and Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO) ended lower by 6 to 7.5%.

Aurora Cannabis (ACB.TO), Cronos Group (CRON.TO), Methanex Corp (MX.TO) and Telus Corp (T.TO) also declined sharply.

Fairfax Financial Holdings (FFH.TO), Blackberry (BB.TO), Suncor Energy (SU.TO), Teck Resources (TECK.B.TO), Bausch Health Companies (BHC.TO), Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO), Crescent Point Energy (CPG.TO) and Snc-Lavalin (SNC.TO) were among the other stocks to lose significant ground amid large volumes.

Among the gainers in the session, Barrick Gold Corp (ABX.TO), Kinaxis Inc. (KXS.TO) and B2Gold Corp (BTO.TO) moved up 3 to 3.7%. Agnico Eagle Mines (AEM.TO), First Quantum Minerals (FM.TO), Shopify Inc. (SHOP.TO), Yamana Gold (YRI.TO) and MEG Energy (MEG.TO) firmed up by 1.4 to 2.3%.