The Canadian stock market concluded Tuesday's session on a negative note, remaining in the red throughout the day as investors awaited critical economic data, including U.S. inflation figures, for insights into the future trajectory of interest rates.
The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index closed down 108.33 points, or 0.48%, at 22,265.05, coming close to the day's low of 22,209.30, which was nearly 60 points lower.
Energy and materials stocks saw gains due to strong commodity prices, whereas sectors such as industrials, real estate, utilities, consumer discretionary, consumer staples, and financials experienced declines.
The Industrials Capped Index fell 2.12%. Notable losses included Brookfield Business Partners (BBU.UN.TO) with a 5.4% decline, Richelieu Hardware (RCH.TO) down 4.1%, and Finning International (FTT.TO), Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CP.TO), CargoJet (CJT.TO), Canadian National Railway (CNR.TO), and Ats Corp (ATS.TO) shedding between 2% and 3.1%.
In the real estate sector, Boardwalk Real Estate (BEI.UN.TO), Dream Industrial (DIR.UN.TO), CT Real Estate (CRT.UN.TO), and Killam Apartment (KMP.UN.TO) dropped between 2.3% and 3.1%.
The utilities sector also faced setbacks, with Brookfield Renewable Partners (BEP.UN.TO) falling 4.1%, and Brookfield Infra Partners (BIP.UN.TO), Emera Incorporated (EMA.TO), Fortis (FTS.TO), and Hydro One (H.TO) declining between 1.5% and 1.9%.
Consumer discretionary stocks Aritzia (ATZ.TO), Gildan Activewear (GIL.TO), Mty Food Group (MTY.TO), and Magna International (MG.TO) saw significant declines.
Major losses in the consumer staples sector included Empire Company (EMP.A.TO) and George Weston (WN.TO).
Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS.TO) concluded the day with a 0.84% decline following the report of lower quarterly earnings. The bank disclosed a second-quarter net income of $2,092 million, or $1.57 per diluted share, compared to $2,146 million, or $1.68 per diluted share, in the same quarter of the previous year.
Other financial stocks such as EQB Inc (EQB.TO), Brookfield Asset Management (BAM.TO), Manulife Financial (MFC.TO), Onex Corp (ONEX.TO), and Sun Life Financial (SLF.TO) also ended sharply lower.
In contrast, Seabridge (SEA.TO) surged approximately 5.5%, while Docebo Inc (DCBO.TO), Precision Drilling Corporation (PD.TO), Imperial Oil (IMO.TO), Teck Resources (TECK.B.TO), Cameco Corporation (CCO.TO), Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO), Constellation Software (CSU.TO), and Franco-Nevada Corporation (FNV.TO) posted gains ranging from 1% to 3%.
On the economic front, Statistics Canada reported that industrial producer prices rose by 1.5% month-over-month in April, marking an eight-month high and up from a revised 0.9% increase in the previous month.
Year-over-year, producer prices in Canada decreased by 1.4% in April, rebounding from a revised 0.4% decline in March.
The Raw Materials Price Index in Canada increased by 5.5% month-over-month in April, following a 4.3% rise in the previous month. On a yearly basis, raw materials prices rose to 3.1% in April from 0.4% in March.
