The Canadian market closed at a nearly six-week low on Tuesday, dragged down by declines in materials and financial stocks.
Investor sentiment remained cautious leading up to the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement and significant economic data from the U.S., including reports on consumer price inflation, producer prices, and consumer sentiment.
The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index dropped 182.42 points, or 0.83%, to finish at 21,887.34, just shy of the day's low of 21,842.90.
Materials sector stocks such as Algoma Steel Group (ASTL.TO), Stelco Holdings (STLC.TO), Nutrien (NTR.TO), SSR Mining (SSRM.TO), Lundin Mining (LUN.TO), Interfor Corp (IFP.TO), B2Gold Corp (BTO.TO), Teck Resources (TECK.B.TO), Ero Copper (ERO.TO), and Osisko Gold Royalties (OR.TO) fell between 2% and 4%.
In the financial sector, Power Corporation of Canada (POW.TO) declined approximately 2.8%. Other notable losses included Onex Corp (ONEX.TO), Manulife Financial (MFC.TO), Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CM.TO), Sun Life Financial (SLF.TO), Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO), National Bank of Canada (NA.TO), and Laurentian Bank (LB.TO), which all decreased between 1% and 2%.
Healthcare stocks such as Bausch Health Companies (BHC.TO) and Tilray Inc (TLRY.TO) finished lower by 3.3% and 2%, respectively.
On the economic front, data from Statistics Canada revealed that building permits in Canada surged by 20.5% month-on-month in April, rebounding from a -12.3% decrease in March.
