TSX Fails To Hold Early Gains, Settles Flat

(RTTNews) - The Canadian stock market ended flat on Friday, failing to hold strong early gains, and then struggling to find support at higher levels in the final hour despite having rebounded into positive territory.

While optimism about economic recovery amid the reopening of businesses lifted the mood early on in the session, reports showing record spikes in coronavirus cases in several parts of America, and the World Health Organization's warning that the pandemic is "accelerating and the world is in a new and dangerous phase" hurt sentiment and rendered the mood extremely cautious.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index, which rose nearly 170 points to 15,638.07 in late morning trades and declined to 15,436.93 by mid afternoon, ended the day at 15,474.20, down 5.63 points or 0.04% from previous close. Recording gains in three of the five sessions, the index posted a weekly gain of 1.43%.

Consumer discretionary, real estate, utilities and industrial shares were weak. Energy stocks gave up early gains and mostly settled well off the day's highs. Healthcare, telecom, financial and information technology stocks ended mixed, while consumer staples and materials shares posted strong gains.

B2Gold Corp (BTO.TO) gained nearly 4%, Kinross Gold Corp (K.TO) gained about 2.4% and Barrick Gold Corporation (ABX.TO) moved up 1.7%.

Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO) notched up a gain of 2.15%. Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM.TO) rallied more than 6%, while Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) and Alimentation Couche-Tard (ATD.B.TO) gained 2.5% and 2%, respectively.

Kinaxis Inc. (KXS.TO) gained nearly 6%. Toromont Industries (TIH.TO), Kirkland Lake Gold (KL.TO), Descartes Systems Group (DSG.TO), Agnico Eagle Mines (AEM.TO), Cargojet (CJT.TO), Franco Nevada Corporation (FNV.TO), Newmont Corporation (NGT.TO) and Colliers International Group (CIGI.TO) ended higher by 2.3 to 4%.

Bombardier Inc. (BBD.B.TO), Suncor Energy (SU.TO), Enbridge Inc. (ENB.TO), Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS.TO), Canadian National Railway (CNR.TO), Gildan Activewear (GIL.TO), Methanex Corporation (MX.TO) and Restaurant Brands International (QSR.TO) declined sharply.

In economic news, data from Statistics Canada showed a sharp 26.4% plunge in Canadian retail sales in the month of April, after a 10% drop a month earlier. Retail sales fell 32.5% in April, compared to sales in the same month last year.

In commodities, West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended up $0.91 or about 2.3% at $39.75 a barrel after hitting a high of $40.50 early on in the session.

Gold futures for August ended up $21.90 or about 1.3% at 1,753.00 an ounce, the highest finish in more than a month. Silver futures for July ended up $0.339 or nearly 2% at $17.847, while Copper futures for July moved up $0.0230 or 0.9% to $2.6110 per pound.