TSX Ends Modestly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Canadian stock market ended modestly lower on Tuesday after spending almost the entire session in negative territory as investors largely refrained from making significant moves.

With the focus on the earnings season and the progress in stimulus negotiations in the U.S., and updates about the spread of coronavirus cases across the world, investors chose to make cautious moves.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended down 51.98 points or 0.31% at 16,510.83, after hitting a low of 16,449.83.

Despite the rebound in oil prices, energy stocks lost ground. The Capped Energy Index shed about 1.37%. Financial, consumer discretionary and materials shares too lost ground.

Information technology stocks had a fairly good outing. Select stocks from industrial, healthcare and telecom sections moved up.

Among the most actively traded stocks, Suncor Energy (SU.TO), Manulife Financial Corporation (MFC.TO), Air Canada (AC.TO) and Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO) lost 1.7 to 2.3%. Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO) slid by about 1.5%.

BlackBerry (BB.TO) climbed 8.8%. Aphria Inc. (APHA.TO) gained 6.3%, while Bombardier Inc. (BBD.B.TO) gained 1.5%.

Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO), BCE Inc. (BCE.TO), Canadian Pacific Railway (CP.TO) and Canadian National Railway (CNR.TO) also ended notably higher.

Worries about spikes in coronavirus cases in several parts across the world and news about fresh lockdown restrictions and pause in late-stage vaccine trial by Johnson & Johnson hurt sentiment.

U.S. stocks closed lower with investors taking some profits after recent gains, and on uncertainty about a new stimulus bill.

The major European markets closed lower while most of the markets across the Asia-Pacific region closed on the positive side.