Canadian Market Down In Negative Territory On Profit Taking

(RTTNews) - After opening modestly lower, the Canadian stock market is languishing in negative territory around noon on Wednesday, due largely to profit taking after two successive days of strong gains.

Investors are also digesting the Bank of Canada's interest rate decision. As widely expected, the central bank held its key overnight interest rate at 0.25%. The bank has also maintained its guidance that the first increase could come as soon as April 2022.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index is down 98.44 points or 0.47% at 21,064.21 a few minutes past noon. The index gained 1.1% and 1.5%, respectively, on Monday and Tuesday.

Information technology stocks are down sharply. Several stocks from industrials, telecom and energy sectors are also weak. Healthcare stocks are up with strong gains.

The Capped Information Technology Index is down more than 2%. Nuvei Corp (NVEI.TO) is down more than 41% following a short call report from Spruce Point Research, which expects a 40%-60% downside for the stock, citing a lack of organic growth and doubts about the chief executive's background.

Enghouse Systems (ENGH.TO) and Tecsys Inc (TCS.TO) both are declining more than 3%, Haivision Systems (HAI.TO) is down 2.5% and Evertz Technologies (ET.TO) is lower by nearly 2%.

Industrials shares WSP Global (WSP.TO), Finning International (FTT.TO), Canadian National Railway (CNR.TO), Toromont Industries (TIH.TO), Boyd Group Services (BYD.TO), Tfi International (TFII.TO) and Stantec (STN.TO) are down 1.6 to 3.2%.

The Capped Healthcare Index is gaining 2.5%. Organigram Holdings (OGI.TO), Canopy Growth Corp (WEED.TO), Tilray Inc (TLRY.TO) and Aurora Cannabis (ACB.TO) are up 4.5 to 5.4%, while Cronos Group (CRON.TO) is rising 3.5%.