Miner Kinross Gold Corp fell 9 per cent and to the bottom of the TSX index, after the company said it would buy gold explorer Great Bear Resources Ltd for about $1.8 billion, a potentially long-life mine complex in Red Lake, Ontario.The energy sector dropped 1.7 per cent as oil prices fell on worries that measures by some governments to slow the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant could hit demand.
A ratings downgrade on two Chinese property developers also stoked fears over the economic health of the world’s biggest oil importer.Article content The materials sector, which includes precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, lost 1.7 per cent as gold futures fell 0.2 ahead of U.S. inflation data due Friday that could influence the Federal Reserve’s stance on interest rate hikes.
“We’re heading into core CPI data tomorrow, which is probably going to be a very large number. But if we rally off of it, and the expectation is that inflation starts to cool later into 2022, then the TSX can continue to go much higher,” said Barry Schwartz, portfolio manager at Baskin Financial Services.
On the TSX, 66 issues were higher, while 161 issues declined for a 2.44-to-1 ratio to the downside, with 14.10 million shares traded.Across all Canadian issues there were 6 new 52-week highs and five new lows, with total volume of 24.91 million shares.