TSX starts holiday-shortened week on lower note
Source: Live Mint
TSX off 1% in broader declines
Healthcare, tech stocks at the bottom
(Updates after markets open)
Dec 30 (Reuters) – Canada’s main stock index dropped more than 1% on Monday in broader market declines as investors opted to secure some profits and take stock of market conditions heading into the new year.
The S&P/TSX composite index was down 258.75 points, or 1.04%, at 24,537.65. It has advanced 16.9% this year and is set to record its best since 2021.
Ten of the 11 sectors on the index were in the red, with healthcare and technology at the bottom, having declined more than 2% each.
The energy sector, up 0.4%, was the only outlier as oil prices edged higher ahead of more economic data from China and the United States.
Wall Street’s main indexes also lost ground on Monday, slipping more than 1% each.
“I think the main thing is, where people have significant gains, they want to lock them in and then maybe reassess market conditions as we enter into the new year,” said Michael Sprung, president at Sprung Investment Management.
“Particularly, technology stocks are being hit as interest rates threatened to either bounce up or remain at relatively higher levels than what people were expecting.”
Trading volumes are expected to be thin in the holiday-shortened week, with markets closed on Wednesday for the New Year.
Canadian equities are set for their worst month since May 2023, partly due to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s forecast of fewer rate cuts next year and domestic political uncertainty.
Market participants are also bracing for policy changes in the United States with Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
Trump has pledged a 25% tariff on all imports from Canada, in a blow to the country’s crude exports to the United States.
Investors will now focus on monthly employment data from Canada and the United States for clues on the monetary policy path of the two countries’ central banks. (Reporting by Ragini Mathur in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar and Shreya Biswas)
