By Ketki Saxena
Investing.com – At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX composite was at 20,692.22 points, down 0.34% in the day’s trading.
The commodity heavy index continued to be weighed down by materials (-0.56%), and energy (-0.40%) despite crude reversing losses from earlier today to trade at $105.83/a barrel as of 4:00 p.m ET.
The price of crude recovered as supply concerns rose to the forefront once again as the EU mulls an embargo on Russian oil by the end of the year and Germany appears to now support an immediate ban.
Heavyweight materials also weighed on the index, tracking the price of gold lower as bond yields soared, lessening the attraction of the non-yielding metal.
All TSX sectors except consumer discretionary (+0.45%), Health Care (+1.36%), Info Tech (+1.74%) and Clean Tech (+0.33% were in the red at the close today.
Canadian equities were pressured by the rise in yields, expectations of a 50 basis point hike from the Federal Reserve next week, and worries of economic slowdown following PMI data from both China and the U.S. Canadian Manufacturing PMI data released today also recorded a decline in April from the all-time high in March, but marked the 22nd consecutive month of expansion as production levels rose sharply.
Biggest gainers on the TSX today included Shopify (TSX:SHOP) (+6.14%), Canopy Growth (TSX:WEED) (+5.26%) and Tilray (TSX:TLRY) (5.16%), while the biggest losers included Sandstorm Gold (TSX:SSL) (-7.22%), Dream Industrial REIT (TSX:DIR_u) (-6.88%), and Fairfax Financial (TSX:FFH) (-6.34%).
Yields on the government of Canada’s benchmark 10 year yield were higher at 2.966% while yields on the 5 year were at 2.836%.
The USD/CAD pair today hit a new YTD high today of C$1.2879 to a USD as Fed rate-hike expectations boosted demand for the greenback.