Canadian Market Remains In Negative Territory, Headed For Another Weak Close

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market remains firmly down in negative territory Monday afternoon with stocks from several sectors reeling under sustained selling pressure.

Worries about a possible recession and a surge in coronavirus cases and fresh curbs in China weigh on sentiment. Lower commodity prices contribute as well to market's weakness.

With more inflation data from the U.S. due this week, and the Canadian central bank set to announce its interest rate decision on Wednesday, the mood in the market is extremely cautious.

Technology and healthcare stocks are the major losers. Communications, energy, consumer discretionary and materials shares are among the other prominent losers.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index is down 188.67 points or nearly 1% at 18,834.19. The index dropped to a low of 18,796.27.

Among technology stocks, Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) is plunging more than 8%. Lightspeed Commerce (LSPD.TO), Nuvei Corp (NVEI.TO), Absolute Software Corp (ABST.TO), Hut 8 Mining (HUT.TO), Converge Technology Solutions (CTS.TO), Haivision Systems (HAI.TO), Kinaxis (KXS.TO), Enghouse Systems (ENGH.TO), BlackBerry (BB.TO) and Tecsys (TCS.TO) are down 2 to 6%.

Dye & Durham (DND.TO) is down more than 3%. Link Administration Holdings Limited (LNK) on Monday rejected a A$4.57 per share revised buy-out proposal from Dye & Durham Limited (DND.TO).

In the healthcare sector, Canopy Growth Corp (WEED.TO) and Aurora Cannabis (ACB.TO) both are down 8.8%. Tilray Inc (TLRY.TO) is declining nearly 6%, while Cronos Group (CRON.TO) and Bausch Health Companies (BHC.TO) are down 3.2% and 2.9%, respectively.

Energy stocks Paramount Resources (POU.TO), Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO), MEG Energy (MEG.TO), Suncor Energy (SU.TO), Arc Resources (ARX.TO), Baytex Energy (BTE.TO) and PrairieSky Royalty (PSK.TO) are down 1.6 to 4%.

Among materials shares, Capstone Mining Corp (CS.TO) and First Quantum Minerals (FM.TO) are down 8.2% and 8.5%, respectively. Hudbay Minerals (HBM.TO), Ero Copper (ERO.TO), Lundin Mining (LUN.TO), Teck Resources (TECK.B.TO), Lithium Americas Corp (LAC.TO) and Eldorado Gold (ELD.TO) are down 2.5 to 6%.