TSX Settles Sharply Lower As Stocks Slide On Rate Hike Fears

(RTTNews) - Canadian stocks tumbled on Friday as fears of aggressive policy tightening by the Federal Reserve, weak commodity prices, and worries about growth amid ongoing Ukraine war and the extended lockdown in Shanghai hurt sentiment and triggered widespread selling.

Mirroring widespread selling, all the sectoral indices in the Canadian market ended in negative territory. Consumer discretionary, materials, financials, technology, industrials and energy stocks closed sharply lower.

Several stocks from healthcare, real estate and communications sectors too posted sharp losses, and the market breadth was very weak.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index, which opened at 21,584.76, ended the session with a loss of 464.03 points or 2.14% at 21,186.38, a few points off the day's low of 21,169.27.

Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO), Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO), Nutrien (NTR.TO), Canadian Pacific Railway (CP.TO), Manulife Financial Corporation (MFC.TO), Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO), Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO) and Canadian National Railway (CNR.TO) shed 2 to 4.2% on strong volumes.

First Quantum Minerals (FM.TO) plunged more than 9% and Teck Resources (TECK.B.TO) ended 7.4% down. Nuvei Corp (NVEI.TO), WSP Global (WSP.TO) and Constellation Software (CSU.TO) also declined sharply.

Data released by Statistics Canada showed retail Sales in Canada increased 7.4% in February of 2022 over the same month in the previous year.

On monthly basis, retail sales rose 0.1% in February after an upwardly revised 3.3% gain from the previous month.

Another report from Statistics Canada showed producer prices in Canada jumped 4% month-over-month in March of 2022, the seventh consecutive monthly increase, and the largest monthly change on record since the series began in 1956.