Health Care and Materials sectors drag Canadian market down

Canada's main market lost ground on Wednesday, as Health Care and Financial groups were the biggest deterrents on a day which saw no groups finish ahead.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite fell 76.51 points, or 0.49 percent to finish the session at 15,543.14 points. All ten of the ten sub-groups ended the trading day in the red.

Health Care, Materials and Information Technology had the biggest percentage drops, retreating 1.84 percent, 1.34 percent, and 1.11 percent, respectively.

One day after finishing as the top gainer, Health Care sector was on the other side of the coin as the top laggard group. Quebec-based drugmaker Valeant Pharmaceutical gave back most of its gains from yesterday, slipping 4.68 percent to 13.45 Canadian dollars (9.81 U.S. dollars) a share. Meanwhile, ProMetic Life Sciences shares fell to 2.05 Canadian dollars (1.49 U.S. dollars to close 4.21 percent lower.

The Material group, which consists of producers of gold, precious metals, and raw materials, was hit hard during the session, as the prices of gold, silver, and copper were all hit hard. The spot price of an ounce of gold slipped 1.53 percent to 1,237.7 U.S. dollars, while the same weight of silver falling 2.14 percent to 16.45 dollars. Copper was hit the hardest, dipping 3.61 percent to 2.5119 U.S. dollars a pound.

As a result, gold miners B2Gold Corp and IAMGOLD Corporation saw shares slip 2.73 percent and 2.27 percent, each. Meanwhile copper miners Teck Resources and Hudbay Minerals Inc were hit harder with respective drops of 5.77 percent and 4.88 percent.

Not all group members had losing days though, as gold miners Tahoe Resources Inc and Kinross Gold saw shares soar 15.10 percent to 12.35 Canadian dollars (9.01 U.S. dollars) and 10.68 percent to 5.08 Canadian dollars (3.70 U.S. dollars) after both posting strong quarterly earnings.

The remaining groups that finished Wednesday' s session lower were: Consumer Staples (0.88 percent), Industrials (0.75 percent), Telecommunications (0.74 percent), Consumer Discretionary (0.40 percent), Utilities (0.16 percent), Financial (0.16 percent), and Energy (0.16 percent).

The Consumer Staples sector, which is made up of firms in the food industry fell as two of the country' s top food retailers lost ground. Montreal-based supermarket Metro Inc declined 1.23 percent, while Laval-based convenient store chain Alimentation Couche-Tard saw shares descend 1.17 percent.

Meanwhile, shares of Toronto-based supermarket Loblaws Companies Limited ticked down 0.17 percent to 76.86 Canadian dollars (56.06 U.S. dollars) despite posting better-than expected quarterly profits due to lower costs.

The TSX financial group was once again pulled down by shares of mortgage lender Home Capital Group Inc, which dipped 11.74 percent to 6.84 Canadian dollars (4.99 U.S. dollars). The Toronto-based firm announced on Tuesday evening that first quarter earnings would be delayed due to the recent events significant events.

The company disclosed last week that they required a line of credit of two billion Canadian dollars after their client deposits decreased 25 percent. Share prices have plummeted by more than two-thirds over the last two weeks.

The country's two largest financial firms provided a slight boost to the group, as Royal Bank of Canada shares rose 0.15 percent to 92.80 Canadian dollars (67.67 U.S. dollars), while insurer Manulife Financial Corporation ticked up 0.21 percent to 24.13 Canadian dollars (17.60 U.S. dollars).

The Canadian dollar inched up 0.03 cents to 0.7292 U.S. dollars. Endit