TSX Ends Session On Weak Note

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market faltered after a slightly positive start Friday morning and languished in negative territory right through the day's session as worries about the Omicron variant of the coronavirus rendered the mood bearish.

Firm crude oil prices and data showing continued expansion in Canadian workforce supported the market early on in the session.

However, data from the Labor Department showed a much smaller than increase in U.S. non-farm payrolls in November, prompting investors to turn cautious.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index, which plunged to 20,492.03, ended the day with a loss of 128.76 points or 0.62% at 20,633.27. The index shed about 2.3% in the week.

Healthcare and information technology shares declined sharply. Real estate, industrials and consumer discretionary stocks were the other major losers.

Organigram Holdings (OGI.TO), Tilray Inc (TLRY.TO), Cronos Group (CRON.TO) and Aurora Cannabis (ACB.TO) declined 5.5 to 6.4%.

Hut 8 Mining Corp (HUT.TO), down 10.7%, was the biggest loser in the Technology Index. Lightspeed Pos (LSPD.TO) shed 7.65%, Nuvei Corp (NVEI.TO) declined nearly 7% and Kinaxis Inc (KXS.TO) ended nearly 6% down. Docebo Inc (DCBO.TO), Descartes Systems Group (DSG.TO), Converge Technology (CTS.TO), BlackBerry (BB.TO) and Sierra Wireless (SW.TO) also declined sharply.

Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO) shares gained 2.35% after the bank reported fourth-quarter net income of $2,159 million, an increase of 36% over the year-ago quarter. Adjusted net income increased by 38% over the year-ago quarter to $2,226 million. The bank declared a dividend of $1.33, an increase of $0.27 or 25%.

Canadian Western Bank (CWB.TO) reported adjusted earnings per share of $1.03 in the fourth quarter of 2021, up 37% over the previous corresponding quarter. The stock shed about 4.4%.

Data from Statistics Canada showed the Canadian economy added a net 153,700 jobs in November of 2021, far above market expectations of about 35,000 jobs. Canadian workforce has now seen six successive months of expansion.

The unemployment rate in Canada dropped to a new pandemic-low of 6% in November from 6.7% in September.

Labour productivity in Canada declined by 1.5% in the third quarter, rebounding from a downwardly revised zero growth in the previous quarter. Meanwhile, average hourly earnings in Canada increased to C$31.18 in November over the previous month.