Canadian Stocks Tumble On Recession Fears; TSX Falls To New 52-week Low

(RTTNews) - Canadian stocks tumbled on Thursday, pushing the benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index to a new 52-week low, as rising possibility of a recession weighed on sentiment.

Energy stocks were under pressure as crude oil prices fell sharply on concerns about outlook for energy demand. Materials shares fell as well on weak bullion prices.

Several stocks from the financial sector declined sharply, while healthcare and technology stocks posted strong gains. Consumer staples and utilities stocks had a good outing as well.

The S&P/TSX Composite Index ended with a loss of 286.92 points or 1.51% at 18,717.12, after hitting a low of 18,661.52.

The Energy Capped Index tanked nearly 7%. MEG Energy (MEG.TO), Baytex Energy (BTE.TO), Crescent Point Energy (CPG.TO), Arc Resources (ARX.TO) and Nuvista Energy (NVA.TO) lost 10 to 12.5%. Whitecap Resources (WCP.TO), Enerplus Corp (ERF.TO), Vermilion Energy (VET.TO), Tourmaline Oil Corp (TOU.TO) and Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO) lost more than 8%.

The Materials Capped Index shed more than 5%. First Quantum Minerals (FM.TO) tanked more than 12%. Teck Resources (TECK.B.TO), Hudbay Minerals (HBM.TO), Capstone Mining (CS.TO), Nutrien (NTR.TO), Lundin Mining Corp (LUN.TO), Ero Copper (ERO.TO) and Interfor Corp (IFP.TO) were among the other major losers.

National Bank of Canada (NA.TO), Fairfax Financial Holdings (FFH.TO), Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO), CDN Western Bank (CWB.TO), Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CM.TO), Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS.TO), Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO) and Laurentian Bank (LB.TO) lost 2 to 4%.

The Health Care Capped Index climbed 5.1%. Tilray Inc (TLRY.TO) soared 12%. Aurora Cannabis (ACB.TO) climbed 8.8%, Canopy Growth Corp (WEED.TO) zoomed 7.3% and Cronos Group (CRON.TO) surged 6.35%. Bausch Health Companies (BHC.TO) ended stronger by nearly 3.5%.

The Information Technology Capped Index surged up 4.12%. Lightspeed Commerce (LSPD.TO) and Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) gained 7.8% and 7.7%, respectively. Evertz Technologies (ET.TO), Hut 8 Mining (HUT.TO), Magnet Forensics (MAGT.TO) and Desartes Systems Group (DSG.TO) ended higher by 5.3 to 6.4%. Nuvei Corp (NVEI.TO), Telus International (TIXT.TO), Absolute Software (ABST.TO) and Kinaxis Inc (KXS.TO) also posted strong gains.

In economic news, manufacturing sales in Canada fell 2.5% month-over-month in May of 2022, following a 1.7% rise in April, preliminary estimates showed. Wholesale sales in Canada likely rose by 2% from a month earlier in May of 2022, following a 0.5% fall in the previous month.