Canadian Market Ends Marginally Down After Lackluster Session

(RTTNews) - Save for a few minutes at the start of the session, the Canadian market was down in negative territory on Monday as investors largely stayed cautious, looking for direction.

Information technology and industrials shares drifted lower. Materials and energy stocks moved up and helped limit the market's downside. A few stocks from consumer staples sector posted gains, while shares from other sectors ended mixed.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index, which advanced to 20,216.81 in early trades, ended down by 23.47 points or 0.12% at 20,164.96, more than 40 points off the session's low of 20,121.75.

Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) declined nearly 4%. Kinaxis Inc (KXS.TO) and Open Text Corp (OTEX.TO) both ended lower by nearly 1%. Hut 8 Mining Corp (HUT.TO) soared nearly 21%.

Industrials shares Westshore Terminals Investment Corp (WTE.TO) shed about 3%. Aecon Group (ARE.TO), Cae Inc (CAE.TO), Canadian Pacific Railway (CP.TO), Ritchie Bros Auctioneers (RBA.TO), Ballard Power Systems (BLDP.TO) and Canadian National Railway (CNR.TO) lost 1 to 2%.

Energy shares Vermilion Energy (VET.TO) and Crescent Point Energy (CPG.TO) both gained about 3.5%. Enerplus Corp (ERF.TO) and Suncor Energy (SU.TO) climbed 2.75% and 2.2%, respectively.

In the materials section, Lithium Americas Corp (LAC.TO), Stelco Holdings (STLC.TO) and Equinox Gold Corp (EQX.TO) gained 6.7%, 6.4% and 6%, respectively. Capston Mining Corp (CS.TO), Iamgold Corp (IMG.TO), Hudbay Minerals (HBM.TO) and Teck Resources (TECK.B.TO) gained 3.5 to 5%.

Pembina Pipeline Corp. (PBL.TO) announced Monday that it has terminated the arrangement agreement with Inter Pipeline Ltd. (IPL.TO) providing for the proposed acquisition by Pembina of Inter Pipeline, in accordance with its terms. Following this, Inter Pipeline has agreed to pay Pembina the C$350 million termination fee provided for in the agreement. Pembina Pipeline Corp shares gained 4.1%, while Inter Pipeline Ltd shares ended lower by about 1.3%.

Investors were looking ahead to the Federal Reserve's two-day monetary policy meeting, which begins on Tuesday.

The central bank will announce its monetary policy on Wednesday. The Fed is expected to leave interest rates unchanged, but traders will be paying close attention to any comments regarding the bank's asset purchase program.