Canadian Shares Start Week in the Red

The S&P/TSX Composite index hovered 0.2% lower at the 20,440 level on Monday, as investors continued to gauge recent economic data for hints on the Bank of Canada’s monetary policy decision later this week.

The central bank is expected to further slow the pace of its tightening cycle and raise interest rates by 25bps, as policymakers aim to ease the risk of overtightening.

According to the latest projections, the BoC expects growth to broadly stall in the fourth quarter until returning to slight growth in the second half of 2022.

Policy-sensitive tech shares led the losses in the session, with Shopify, Constellation Software, and CGI all dropping around 1%.

On the other hand, energy producers limited losses for the index and traded 1.3% higher on average, as eased Covid lockdown rules in China supported crude oil prices.