TSX Ends Marginally Up After Choppy Ride

(RTTNews) - The Canadian stock market recovered after a weak start, faltered again, but managed to emerge into positive territory around late afternoon to end the session marginally up on Tuesday.

Back after an extended weekend following a holiday on Monday for Family Day, investors stayed largely cautious almost the entire duration of the session, as U.S. technology major Apple Inc. warned it would not meet its sales and revenue targets for the quarter ending March due to the impact of the coronavirus.

Apple said it expects to miss its forecast for second quarter revenue of $63 billion to $67 billion due to lower iPhone production and weak Chinese demand as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index, which declined to a low of 17,812.48 around noon, ended the session with a gain of 9.98 points, or 0.06%, at 17,858.34, after scaling a high of 17,871.34 a little before the closing bell.

Materials shares turned in a fine performance, tracking higher gold and sliver prices. The Capped Materials Index gained 2.08%.

Eldorado Gold (ELD.TO) soared 10.5%. B2Gold Corp (BTO.TO) gained nearly 8.5%, while Pan American Silver Corp (PAAS.TO), Yamana Gold (YRI.TO), Alamos Gold (AGI.TO), Alacer Gold (ASR.TO), Kinross Gold Corp (K.TO), Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM.TO), Barrick Gold Corp (ABX.TO) and MAG Silver (MAG.TO) gained 4.5 to 7%. Kirkland Lake Gold (KL.TO) gained about 3%.

Blackberry (BB.TO) gained about 4.7% on strong volumes. Ballard Power Systems (BLDP.TO) climbed nearly 10%. Rogers Communications (RCI.B.TO), Canadian Tire Corporation (CTC.TO) and Franco-Nevada Corporation (FNV.TO) gained 1.3 to 3%.

Bombardier Inc. (BBD.B.TO) declined 9.7%. The company announced that it has reached a US$8.2-billion deal to sell its rail business to French rail giant Alstom SA.

Air Canada (AC.TO) ended lower by about 2.7%. Air Canada said today that its first quarter is expected to be hurt by the suspension of flights to mainland China and from Toronto to Hong Kong due to the novel coronavirus, the continued grounding of its fleet of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft and increased maintenance and pension costs.

The airline, which reported net profit of $152 million or $0.56 per diluted share in the fourth-quarter, compared to net loss of $360 million or $1.33 per share in the year-ago quarter. The company said it expects first-quarter EBITDA to be about $200 million lower than the first quarter of 2019.

Maxar Technologies (MAXR.TO), Dollarama (DOL.TO), Norbord Inc. (OSB.TO), CCL Industries (CCL.A.TO) and MTY Foods (MTY.TO) ended lower by 2 to 7%.

On the economic front, data from Statistics Canada showed manufacturing sales in Canada dropped 0.7% over a month earlier to C$ 57.0 billion in December 2019, following an upwardly revised 1% fall in the previous month.

U.S. stocks moved mostly lower after Apple warned of weaker than previously forecast second quarter revenue.

The Nasdaq inched up by less than a tenth of a percent, while the Dow and the S&P 500 declined 0.6% and 0.3%, respectively.

Markets across the Asia-Pacific region ended lower. The major European markets too closed weak.

In commodities, West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March for March ended at $52.05 a barrel, unchanged from previous close.

Gold futures for April ended up $17.20, or about 1.1%, at $1,603.60 an ounce, the highest settlement since end March 2013.

Silver futures for March ended up $0.416 at $18.150 an ounce, while Copper futures for March settled at $2.6040 per pound, up $0.0045 from previous close.