Canadian Market In Negative Territory As Energy, Materials Shares Tumble

(RTTNews) - The Canadian stock market, which opened weak Monday morning, continues to languish in negative territory about an hour past noon due to sharp losses in energy and materials sections.

Falling commodity prices and uncertainty about the pace of global economic recovery due to fresh lockdown measures in several countries in Asia, especially China, weigh on the market.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index is down 39.49 points or 0.19% at 20,435.93 an hour past noon.

On Friday, the index ended up by 99.94 points or 0.5% at 20,475.42, after climbing to a new high of 20,506.16.

The Capped Energy Index is down more than 2%. Arc Resources (ARX.TO), Crescent Point Energy (CPG.TO), Enerplus Corp (ERF.TO) and Tourmaline Oil Corp (TOU.TO) are down 3 to 3.6%. Whitecap Resources (WCP.TO) is down nearly 3%, while Cenvous Energy (CVE.TO), Vermilion Energy (VET.TO), MEG Energy (MEG.TO) and Suncor Energy (SU.TO) are down 2 to 2.7%.

The Capped Materials Index is down 1.9%. Endeavour Silver Corp (EDR.TO), Silvercrest Metals (SIL.TO), Silvercorp Metals (SVM.TO), New Gold (NGD.TO), Iamgold Corp (IMG.TO), Torex Gold Resources (TXG.TO), Pan American Silver Corp (PAAS.TO), Eldorado Gold (ELD.TO), Ssr Mining (SSRM.TO) and Yamana Gold (YRI.TO) are down 4 to 6.5%.

Barrick Gold Corporation (ABX.TO) reported adjusted second-quarter net earnings of $513 million, compared to adjusted net earnings of $507 in the year-ago quarter. The stock is down by about 1.4%.