The Toronto stock market pulled back Tuesday as energy and financial companies lost ground, while big names like Home Capital Group and Valeant Pharmaceuticals soared.
The S&P/TSX composite index fell 82.88 points, or about half a per cent, to 15,569.20. Oil and bank stocks were the biggest decliners, losing a collective 2% on the index.
But it wasn’t all bad news on the TSX, as the health-care sector climbed 5.5%, thanks to a large gain by Quebec-based drugmaker Valeant. Shares in the company shot up 24%, or $3.22, to $16.58 after it reported its first quarterly profit in six quarters and raised its earnings forecast for the year.
Meanwhile, alternative mortgage lender Home Capital saw its stock increase more than 29% after the company announced that an independent third party expressed interest in buying up to $1.5 billion of its mortgage assets. This was on top of a nearly 17% gain on Monday.
“They’ve definitely put a floor on the downside contagion risk much to the benefit of the Canadian banks and the broader Canadian market in general,” said Craig Jerusalim, a portfolio manager of Canadian equities at CIBC Asset Management.
In economic news, Statistics Canada reported that the value of building permits issued by municipalities fell in March for the second consecutive month, due in large part to a drop in plans for apartment buildings, particularly in B.C. and Ontario.
The value of building permits dropped 5.8% to $7 billion in March. Economists had expected an increase of 5.5%, according to Thomson Reuters.
The Canadian dollar dipped 0.13 a U.S. cent to an average value of US72.84¢.
South of the border, trading on Wall Street was in a lull for a second day this week.
The Dow Jones industrial average declined 36.50 points to 20,975.78 and the S&P 500 index edged down 2.46 points to 2,396.92. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index was ahead 17.93 points to 6,120.59, climbing to another record.
U.S. markets have become so calm that an index used to measure fear among traders is close to its lowest in more than two decades. The VIX volatility index on Monday hit its lowest closing level since 1993, and it held close to that level Tuesday.
In commodities, the June crude contract lost 55¢ at US$45.88 per barrel, while the June natural gas contract was up US6¢ at US$3.23 per mmBTU.
The June gold contract was down US$11 at US$1,216.10 an ounce and the July copper contract was unchanged at US$2.49 a pound.
With files from The Associated Press