TSX Retreats After Recording Another New High

(RTTNews) - Canadian shares were swinging between gains and losses Friday morning as investors made cautious moves amid a lack of positive triggers.

A few stocks from information technology, materials and energy sections moved higher, while shares from healthcare sector declined sharply. Financial, consumer discretionary and industrial shares were mostly subdued.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index was down 13.40 points, or 0.08%, at 17,166.75 a few minutes past noon, after having advanced to a new all-time high at 17,230.58 earlier.

Photon Control Inc. (PHO.TO) gained nearly 4%, topping the list of gainers in the information technology space. Shopify Inc. (SHOP.TO) rallied 3.3% and BlackBerry (BB.TO) gained 1.6%.

Open Text Corporation (OTEX.TO) announced on Wednesday that it has completed the closing of the previously announced acquisition of Carbonite, Inc., provider of cloud-based subscription data protection, backup, disaster recovery and endpoint security to small and medium-sized businesses and prosumers. Open Text acquired the shares of Carbonite at $23.00 per share. The stock was up 0.4% at noon.

Among the stocks in the materials space, Semafo (SMF.TO) gained more than 4%, Alacer Gold Corp (ASR.TO) advanced 3.2% and Yamana Gold Inc. (YRI.TO) gained 3%. West Fraser Timber (WFT.TO), Iamgold Corp (IMG.TO), B2Gold Corp (BTO.TO), Osisko Gold Royalties (OR.TO), Novagold (NG.TO) and Hudbay Minerals (HBM.TO) gained 2 to 2.7%.

In the energy space, Encana Corp (ECA.TO), Whitecap Resources (WCP.TO), Enerplus Corp (ERF.TO), Seven Generations Energy (VII.TO) and Parex Resources (PXT.TO) were up 1.2 to 1.7%.

TC Energy Corp (TRP.TO) was up by about 0.4%. The company announced on Thursday that it has entered into an agreement to sell a 65% equity interest in the Coastal GasLink Pipeline Project to KKR and Alberta Investment Management Corporation on behalf of certain AIMCo clients.

Shares of cannabis firm Hexo Corp (HEXO.TO) plunged more than 17% after the company said it has raised $25 million by diluting the value of its existing shares through a direct offering.

Hexo said it sold 14.9 million shares at $1.67 a pop, a discount to Tuesday's closing price of $1.96.

Canopy Growth Corp (WEED.TO) shed about 3.1%, Cronos Group (CRON.TO) lost 2.7% and Aurora Cannabis (ACB.TO) declined 2%. Aphria Inc. (APHA.TO) was down by about 1.7%.