Canadian Market Remains Weak Despite Paring Some Early Losses

(RTTNews) - After a slightly weak start and a subsequent drop to lower levels, the Canadian market has recovered some lost ground on Friday with select stocks finding modest support.

Still, the mood remains quite cautious amid continued uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates, and concerns on the political front in Europe.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index, which dropped to 21,486.83 earlier in the session, was down 84.14 or 0.39% 21,613.97 a little while ago.

Communications, consumer staples, energy and financials shares are among the prominent losers. Technology stocks are finding some support.

BCE Inc (BCE.TO), Canadian Tire Corporation (CTC.A.TO), Methanex Corporation (MX.TO), Alimentation Couche-Tard (ATD.TO), Linamar Corporation (LNR.TO), Bombardier Inc (BBD.A.TO) and Celestica Inc (CLS.TO) are down 2.5 to 3.7%.

Colliers International (CIGI.TO), George Weston (WN.TO), Loblaw Companies (L.TO), TFI International (TFI.TO), WSP Global (WSP.TO) and Franco-Nevada Corporation (FNV.TO) are down 1 to 1.7%.

Loblaw Companies (L.TO) is down 1.2%. The company announced today that it has entered into an automatic share purchase plan with a broker in order to repurchase its shares under the previously announced normal course issuer bid.

Earlier, Loblaw had announced that it received approval from the Toronto Stock Exchange to purchase up to 15.336 million shares, representing approximately 5% of the 306.737 shares outstanding as of April 22.

Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) and Boyd Group Services (BYD.TO) are up 5% and 3.5%, respectively. CCL Industries (CCL.A.TO), Cargojet (CJT.TO), goeasy (GSY.TO) and Dollarama (DOL.TO) are gaining 2 to 3%. Teck Resources (TECK.B.TO) and CCL Industries (CCL.B.TO) are also notably higher.

In economic news, data from Statistics Canada showed Canada's manufacturing sales rose 1.2% from a month earlier in April, rebounding from a 2.1% decline in the previous month. Wholesale sales in Canada were up 2.4% in April, from -1.1% in March.