TSX Ends Moderately Lower

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market ended notably lower on Thursday, hurt by losses in healthcare, technology and industrials sectors.

Data showing a slowdown in U.S. private sector job growth, and slowing service sector activity weighed on sentiment.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended with a loss of 116.21 points or 0.57% at 20,159.55, more than 60 points off the day's low of 20,097.59.

Technology stocks Hut 8 Mining (HUT.TO), Lightspeed Commerce (LSPD.TO), Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO), Docebo Inc (DCBO.TO) and Coveo Solutions (CVO.TO) lost 4 to 6%.

Enghouse Systems (ENGH.TO), Celestica Inc (CLS.TO), BlackBerry (BB.TO) and Kinaxis Inc (KXS.TO) also ended notably lower.

In the Healthcare sector, Bellus Health Inc (BLU.TO) tumbled 7%. Canopy Growth Corp (WEED.TO) drifted down 5.73%, Tilray Inc (TLRY.TO) ended 2.1% down, and Bausch Health Companies (BHC.TO) drifted down 1.6%.

Among industrials shares, Ballard Power Systems (BLDP.TO) declined 5.6%. Russel Metals (RUS.TO), Toromont Industries (TIH.TO), WSP Global Inc (WSP.TO), Ats Corp (ATS.TO), Bombardier Inc (BBD.B.TO), Badger Infrastructure (BDGI.TO) and Snc-Lavalin (SNC.TO) lost 2.7 to 4.3%.

Utilities shares Fortis Inc (FTS.TO), Emera Inc (EMA.TO), Atco (ACO.X.TO) and Canadian Utilities (CU.TO) ended lower by 2 to 2.8%.

Communications stocks Telus Corp (T.TO), Rogers Communications (RCI.B.TO) and BCE Inc (BCE.TO) gained 1.4 to 1.7%.

On the economic front, data from Statistics Canada showed Canada posted a trade surplus of C$ 420 million in February of 2023, down sharply from the downwardly revised surplus of C$ 1.2 billion in the previous month. Total exports fell by 2.4% to C$ 65 billion in the period, while imports fell by a slower 1.3% to C$ 64.6 billion.

In U.S. economic news, a report released by payroll processor ADP showed private sector employment rose by 145,000 jobs in March after climbing by an upwardly revised 261,000 jobs in February.

Economists had expected private sector employment to advance by 200,000 jobs compared to the addition of 242,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

A separate report released by the Institute for Supply Management said its services PMI PMI slid to 51.2 in March from 55.1 in February. Economists had expected the index to show a much more modest decrease to 54.5.