Canadian Market Down In Negative Territory At Noon

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market is down in negative territory around noon on Monday, weighed down by losses in energy, materials and utilities sectors.

Consumer staples shares are notably higher. A few stocks from technology sector are also up with impressive gains.

The mood is quite cautious amid concerns over the growing unrest in China with protests against imposition of strict Covid-related restrictions seeing widespread protests in several areas.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index is down 86.34 points or 0.42% at 20,297.43 a little before noon.

Energy stocks are down sharply, tracking falling crude oil prices. The Energy Capped Index is down 1.7%. Vermilion Energy (VET.TO), Precision Drilling Corp (PD.TO), Whitecap Resources (WCP.TO), Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO) and Crescent Point Energy (CPG.TO) are down 2 to 3.1%.

Equinox Gold Corp (EQX.TO), down 6%, is the biggest loser in the Materials index. Ero Copper (ERO.TO), Filo Mining (FIL.TO), K92 Mining Inc (KNT.TO), MAG Silver Corp (MAG.TO), Iamgold Corp (IMG.TO), Silvercrest Metals (SIL.TO), Eldorado Gold (ELD.TO) and Kinross Gold Corp (K.TO) are declining 3 to 5%.

In the Utilities section, Boralex Inc (BLX.TO) is down more than 3%. Brookfield Renewable Partners (BEP.UN.TO), Innergex Renewable Energy (INC.TO), Altagas (ALA.TO), Brookfield Infra Partners (BIP.UN.TO) and TransAlta Corp (TA.TO) are down 1 to 1.6%.

Among consumer staples stocks, Loblaw Co (L.TO) is gaining 2.4%, Saputo Inc (SAP.TO), Empire Company (EMP.A.TO), Alimentation Couche-Tard and Metro Inc (MRU.TO) are gaining 1.3 to 1.6%.