TSX Ends Nearly 3% Down On Weak Data

(RTTNews) - The Canadian stock market ended sharply lower on Thursday amid worries about the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic after data showed the country's growth stagnated in March.

Traders also appeared a bit keen taking some profits after recent sharp gains.

Materials, healthcare, financial and consumer discretionary shares declined sharply. Utilities, energy, consumer staples and industrial shares also ended sharply lower. Information technologies found modest support.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended down 447.37 points, or 2.94%, at 14,780.74.

The Capped Materials index went down by 3.71%. The Healthcare and Financial indices both ended lower by about 3.55%. Consumer Discretionary, Utilities, Energy, Consumer Staples and Industrial indices lost between 2 and 3%.

Air Canada (AC.TO), Suncor Energy (SU.TO), Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO) and Kinross Gold Corp (K.TO) lost 5 to 6.5% on heavy volumes.

B2Gold Corp (BTO.TO), Enbridge (ENB.TO), Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS.TO), Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO) and Manulife Financial (MFC.TO) declined 3.3 to 5%.

Fairfax Financial Holdings (FFH.TO), Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM.TO), Canadian Tire Corporation (CTC.A.TO), Restaurant Brands International (QSR.TO) and Franco-Nevada Corporation (FNV.TO) were some of the other major losers.

Whitecap Resources (WCP.TO) soared nearly 17%. Husky Energy (HSE.TO) ended more than 9% up and Crescent Point Energy (CPG.TO) notched up a gain of 7.2%. Bombardier Inc. (BBD.B.TO), Baytex Energy (BTE.TO) and Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO) also closed on a firm note.

Statistics Canada's data showed the economy stalled in February 2020, after expanding 0.2% a month earlier. Economists expected the economy to see a 0.1% growth in February.

The data also said its March industrial product price index was down 0.9% in March, driven primarily by lower prices for refined petroleum energy products, while the Raw Materials Price Index fell 15.6%, mostly due to lower prices for crude oil.

Producer prices in Canada decreased 2.4% in March of 2020 over the same month in the previous year. Producer prices decreased to 115.60 points in March from 116.70 points in February of 2020.