CANADA STOCKS-Tech, material stocks drag TSX lower from over two-month high
(Adds comments, updates prices)
By Aniruddha Ghosh
Aug 17 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index fell on Wednesday a day after hitting an over two-month high as technology and material stocks fell, although a rebound in oil prices boosted heavyweight energy shares and capped overall losses on the index.
At 10:55 a.m. ET (1455 GMT), the Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index was down 86.42 points, or 0.43 percent, at 20,183.55.
The materials sector, which includes precious and base metals miners, lost 1.3% as gold futures fell 0.2% amid jitters ahead of minutes of the U.S. Federal Reserve's July policy meet.
Shares of Lundin Mining Corp dropped 6.8% to the bottom of the TSX as Chile issued a series of measures against a copper mine owned by the company, after a sinkhole opened up near one of the mines.
Meanwhile, the S&P/TSX Information Technology Index fell 2.2%, dragged by a 8.8% slide in Hut 8 Mining after DA Davidson downgraded the bitcoin miner' stock to "neutral".
"There's a lot of short covering that's happening which has caused the market to rally quite substantially off of the lows, and I am sure they will pause as we try to digest more data as it comes to us," said James Telfser, Managing Partner and Portfolio Manager at Aventine Investment Counsel.
The Toronto market has rallied about 11% from its July trough but is still below 9.6% from its April highs.
The market received a lift on Tuesday after official data showed Canada's inflation eased slightly in July on lower gasoline prices, prompting the country's central bank governor to say that the annual rate might have peaked.
The energy sector climbed 1.7% as U.S. crude and Brent crude prices rebounded from six-month lows.
The largest percentage gainers on the TSX were Canopy Growth Co, which jumped 9.9%, followed by a 6% rise in Aurora Cannabis.
Shares of peer Tilray Brands gained 5.6% after it received an approval to commercialize its branded medical cannabis products in Poland. (Reporting by Aniruddha Ghosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel and Krishna Chandra Eluri)
