Canadian Shares Turning In Mixed Performance

(RTTNews) - Canadian shares are turning in a mixed performance on Thursday with investors largely staying cautious and making stock specific moves. Information technology and industrials shares are up with strong gains, while shares from healthcare and energy sectors are weak. A few stocks from real estate and consumer discretionary sectors are up with notable gains, while shares from the rest of the sectors are mostly flat.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index, which drifted down to 18,870.76 earlier in the session, was down 19.50 points or 0.1% at 19,001.17 a little while ago.

Hut 8 Mining Corp (HUT.TO), the top gainer in the technology section, is rising 6.5%. Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) is gaining 5.3%. Tecsys Inc (TCS.TO) and Absolute Software Corp (ABST.TO) are up nearly 4% and 3.5%, respectively.

Mullen Group (MTL.TO), up 9.3%, is the top gainer in the industrials section. The company reported adjusted net income of $44.1 million for the second quarter ended June 30, 2022, an increase of 121.6% over adjusted net income of $19.9 million in the corresponding quarter last year. Adjusted earnings per share rose to $0.47 in the latest quarter, from $0.21 a year ago.

Energy stocks Athabasca Oil (ATH.TO), Baytex Energy (BTE.TO), Precision Drilling Corp (PD.TO) and Crescent Point Energy (CPG.TO) are down 5 to 7%.

Healthcare stocks Canopy Growth Corp (WEED.TO) and Aurora Cannabis (ACB.TO) are down 9.7% and 7.6%, respectively. Tilray Inc (TLRY.TO) is down 3.7% and Cronos Group (CRON.TO) is declining 2.5%.

On the economic front, new home prices in Canada inched up by 0.2% from a month earlier in June 2022, slowing from a 0.5% increase in the prior month. Year-on-year, new home prices rose 7.9% in June, slowing from an 8.4% jump in May.