The Canadian market faced a downturn on Monday, primarily affected by setbacks in the healthcare, energy, and materials sectors. This decline was attributed to a stronger Canadian dollar and apprehensions surrounding potential trade conflicts. Investors remained mostly cautious as they anticipated significant economic data releases from the U.S. and Canadian markets.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index experienced a decline of 57.67 points, or 0.22%, ending the day at 25,590.33. This came after hitting an intraday low of 25,492.57 and a high of 25,706.50.
Notable losses were recorded in companies such as Lightspeed Commerce (LSPD.TO), Hut 8 Corp (HUT.TO), and Bausch Health Companies (BHC.TO), each seeing a decrease exceeding 8%.
Among the other decliners, Atco (ACO.Y.TO), West Fraser Timber (WFG.TO), Pan American Silver Corp (PAAS.TO), Newmont Corporation (NGT.TO), Cargojet (CJT.TO), Pembina Pipeline Corporation (PPL.TO), Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO), Docebo Inc (DCBO.TO), goeasy (GSY.TO), Agnico Eagle Mines (AEM.TO), Cameco Corporation (CCO.TO), Descartes Systems Group (DSG.TO), GFL Environmental (GFL.TO), Teck Resources (TECK.A.TO), and Waste Connections (WCN.TO) fell between 1% and 2.5%.
Conversely, Quebecor Inc (QBR.A.TO) and Computer Modelling Group (CMG.TO) saw significant gains, rising 9.1% and 8.5%, respectively. Aritzia Inc (ATZ.TO) also performed well, gaining 5%.
On the positive side, Methanex Corporation (MX.TO), Nutrien (NTR.TO), Dayforce (DAY.TO), BRP Inc (DOO.TO), Linamar Corporation (LNR.TO), Canadian Western Bank (CWB.TO), Loblaw (L.TO), Alimentation Couche-Tard (ATD.TO), Thomson Reuters (TRI.TO), Constellation Software (CSU.TO), Gildan Activewear (GIL.TO), and Fairfax Financial Holdings (FFH.TO) closed the day with increases ranging from 1% to 3.2%.
In terms of economic indicators, the S&P Global Canada Manufacturing PMI rose to 52.0 in November 2024, up from 51.1 in October. This improvement signifies the strongest growth in factory activity since February 2023 and marks the third consecutive month of expansion.
