TSX Recovers Well After Early Sharp Fall, Ends Marginally Up

(RTTNews) - After a weak start and a subsequent sharp plunge Thursday morning, the Canadian stock market recovered gradually as the session progressed and eventually ended the day with a small gain.

Mounting worries about spikes in coronavirus cases across the world, disappointing U.S. GDP data and lower commodity prices set up a weak start for the market. Some disappointing earnings reports weighed as well early on in the session.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended up 4.63 points or 0.03% at 16,299.29, rallying from an early low of 16,020.55.

Energy and materials shares declined sharply. Industrial and financial stocks recovered well and settled way off the day's lows. Healthcare, real estate and consumer discretionary stocks found modest support, while several shares from information technology, telecom and consumer staples sectors posted notable gains.

Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO), Yamana Gold (YRI.TO) and Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO) lost 3.9%, 3.3% and 2.9%, respectively. Air Canada (AC.TO) declined 1.6%.

Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM.TO), Franco-Nevada Corp (FNV.TO), Methanex Corporation (MX.TO), Pan American Silver Corp (PAAS.TO) and SSR Mining (SSRM.TO) also ended with sharp losses.

Bombardier Inc. (BBD.B.TO), Agnico Eagle Mines (AEM.TO), Kirkland Lake Gold (KL.TO), Shopify Inc. (SHOP.TO), Lightspeed Pos (LSPD.TO), Constellation Software (CSU.TO), Cargojet (CJT.TO), CGI Inc. (GIB.A.TO) and Colliers International (CIGI.TO) gained 1.5 to 6%.

Maple Leaf Foods (MFI.TO) gained 5.4% on strong results. The company announced it posted net earnings of $25.7 million in the second quarter, compared to net loss of $6.3 million last year.

In economic news, average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees in Canada grew 10.4% year-on-year to C$ 1,139 in May 2020.