Canadian Market Remains Weak; Materials, Industrials Shares Drifting Lower

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market, where trading resumed after a long weekend, remains in negative territory after a weak start Tuesday morning, tracking weak bullion prices and European stocks.

Worries about rising Sino-U.S. tensions, and concerns about inflation and interest rates are weighing on sentiment. Investors are also looking for updates on U.S. debt ceiling talks.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index, which dropped to 20,254.47 earlier in the session, is down 43.34 points or 0.21% at 20,307.72.

Materials stocks are down, weighed down by lower bullion prices. The Materials Capped Index is down 1.76%. Wesdome Gold Mines (WDO.TO) is declining 6%. Hudbay Minerals (HBM.TO), Capstone Mining Corp (CS.TO), Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM.TO), Stelco Holdings (STLC.TO) and Teck Resources (TECK.B.TO) are down 3 to 4.2%. First Quantum Minerals (FM.TO), Nutrien (NTR.TO), Agnico Eagle Mines (AEM.TO) and Interfor Corp (IFP.TO) are also down sharply.

Industrials shares Canadian Pacific Railway (CP.TO) and Canadian National Railway (CNR.TO) are down 3.1% and 2.5%, respectively. Boyd Group Services (BYD.TO), SNC-Lavalin (SNC.TO), Bombardier Inc (BBD.B.TO), Waste Connections (WN.TO) and Thomson Reuters (TRI.TO) are down 1 to 1.6%.

In the healthcare sector, Bausch Health Companies (BHC.TO) is rising more than 7%. Canopy Growth Corp (WEED.TO) and Tilray Inc (TLRY.TO) are gaining 4.8% and 4.6%, respectively. Bellus Health Inc (BLU.TO) is up 1.1%.

Energy stocks are up on higher crude oil prices. Africa Oil Corp (AOI.TO) is up 7%. The company announced that it has submitted withdrawal notices to its joint venture partners on Blocks 10BB, 13T and 10BA in Kenya , to unconditionally and irrevocably, withdraw from the entirety of the joint operating agreements and Production Sharing Contracts for these concessions.

Headwater Exploration (HWX.TO), Imperial Oil (IMO.TO), MEG Energy (MEG.TO) and Crescent Point Energy (CPG.TO) are advancing 2.5 to 3%.

In economic news, raw materials prices in Canada fell 10.8% in April 2023, less than market expectations of a 24.5% decline. Producer prices unexpectedly edged down by 0.2% in April, following a revised 0.1% fall in the prior month.