TSX Ends 1.2% Down; Energy, Financials Stocks Lose Ground

(RTTNews) - Canadian stocks closed sharply lower on Thursday as fading hopes of a series of rate cuts by the Federal Reserve this year, and weak commodity prices rendered the mood bearish.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended with a loss of 263.44 points or 1.2% at 21,698.11, off the session's low of 21,680.06.

Energy, materials and financials shares were among the major losers in the session. Mirroring widespread selling, all the sectoral indices ended in negative territory.

The Energy Capped Index tumbled 3.07%. The Materials Capped Index and the Financials Index lost 1.75% and 1.28%, respectively.

Sprott Inc (SII.TO), Tourmaline Oil Corp (TOU.TO), Bombardier Inc (BBD.B.TO), Agnico Eagle Mines (AEM.TO) and Precision Drilling Corporation (PD.TO) lost 2 to 4%.

Franco-Nevada Corporation (FNV.TO), goeasy (GSY.TO), Constellation Software (CSU.TO), Fairfax Financial Holdings (FFH.TO), TFI International (TFII.TO) and Thomson Reuters Corporation (TRI.TO) also ended notably lower.

Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO), Parex Resources (PXT.TO), Vermilion Energy (VET.TO), Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO), International Petroleum Corporation (IPCO.TO), Suncor Energy (SU.TO), Paramount Resources (POU.TO) and MEG Energy (MEG.TO) ended sharply lower.

Materials shares Alamos Gold (AGI.TO), MAG Silver Corp (MAG.TO), First Quantum Minerals (FM.TO), Methanex Corp (MX.TO) and Hudbay Minerals (HBM.TO) lost 2.4 to 4.4%.

Laurentian Bank (LB.TO), Manulife Financial (MFC.TO), Sun Life Financial (SLF.TO), CDN Western Bank (CWB.TO), National Bank of Canada (NA.TO) and Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO) declined sharply.

Following yesterday's tamer-than-expected consumer price inflation data, a report released by the U.S. Labor Department this morning showed a modest decrease by producer prices in the month of May.

The report said the producer price index for final demand dipped by 0.2% in May after climbing by 0.5% in April. Economists had expected producer prices to inch up by 0.1%.

The report also said the annual rate of producer price growth slowed to 2.2% in May from an upwardly revised 2.3% in April. Economists had expected the annual rate of producer price growth to accelerate to 2.5% from the 2.2% originally reported for the previous month.