On Wednesday, the Canadian market saw a slight increase, buoyed by the rising prices of bullion and oil which bolstered the energy and materials stocks. Despite the positivity within the healthcare stocks, consumer discretionary, technology and real estate stocks delivered a weaker performance. Other sectors demonstrated mixed results.
The key S&P/TSX Composite Index recorded a gain of 37.36 points, an increase of 0.17%, ending the session at 22,112.46. This showed progress from a low of 22,062.72 and a high of 22,173.60 intraday.
Certain stocks saw significant gains, such as Tilray Inc, Aurora Cannabis and Canopy Growth Corporation, with increases of 16.7%, 44% and 29.6% respectively. In the energy sector, stocks like Precision Drilling Corp, Headwater Exploration, Tamarack Valley Energy, among others, saw increases ranging from 2 to 7.25%.
Materials shares also demonstrated strong gains with First Majestic Silver Corp, Fortuna Silver Mines and others achieving increases from 4.3% to 16.4%.
However, consumer discretionary stocks including Restaurant Brands International, Dollarama Inc and others ended with decreases of 1 to 2%. Technology stocks such as Copperleaf Technologies and Shopify Inc also fell by 4.9% and 3.4%, respectively.
The shares of Indigo Books & Music Inc. surged by almost 23% after the announcement of Trilogy Investments L.P. and Trilogy Retail Holdings Inc.'s arrangement agreement to acquire all the common shares of the Company. Meanwhile, Vecima Networks Inc. experienced a 5.4% gain after declaring its asset purchase agreement to buy the cable business assets of Casa Systems, Inc. for $20 million.
On the economic front, the S&P Global Canada Composite PMI scored slightly less at 47.0 in March from February's 47.1, marking the tenth successive month of slowdown in private sector activity in Canada. Similarly, the S&P Global Canada Services PMI fell to 46.4 in March from 46.6 in February, indicating a decline for the tenth consecutive month.
