The S&P/TSX Composite Index was broadly lower on Friday as the tech subsector underperformed.
At 12:20 pm EDT, the S&P/TSX Composite Index shed 149.03 points, or 0.74 percent, to 20,116.34. Friday’s drop comes after the TSX rose 0.42 percent to 20,265.37, Thursday.
The TSX tech subgroup was the biggest underperformer, as all tech stocks were in the red.
Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd., Brookfield Infrastructure Partners LP and Telus Communications Inc. were among the stocks that wiped the most points off the index.
Benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude price gained 1.03 percent to US$91.43 per barrel.
Shares of Shawcor Ltd. rallied 19.97 percent to $7.39, following an announcement that it received a contract, valued at around $500 million, from the Mexican subsidiary of TC Energy Corp.
The company would be responsible for covering approximately 706 km of a 36-inch diameter pipeline with concrete weighted coating. The coating is expected to begin in early 2023 and will take roughly one year to complete, the company said in a press release on Friday.
South of the border, markets were in the red as the tech sector sank.
The S&P 500 dipped 1.25 percent, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 0.68 percent and the Nasdaq declined 1.88 percent.
Amid current market volatility, Victoria Fernandez, the chief market strategist at Crossmark Global Investments, said in an interview Friday morning that she prioritizes profitability.
“The companies that are going to withstand that are the ones that have solid cash flows, the ones that have strong balance sheets, and good management and business models. So that’s how we’re approaching it,” Fernandez said.