By Adriano Marchese

Toronto stocks were mildly lower Tuesday mid-session. Canadian inflation rose at slightly slower pace in November, at a rate of 1.9%, thanks to a broad-based deceleration in inflation which could signal further rate cuts even after last week's 50-basis-point cut.

Meanwhile, Canadian investors sold more holdings of foreign securities in October than foreigners bought Canadian ones for the first month since January.

Most sectors were lower in the session. Energy and communication services were the worst performers, followed by materials, utilities, financials, and industrials. Tech was the lead gainer, followed by real estate, healthcare and consumer discretionary.

Canada's S&P/TSX Composite Index fell by 0.2% to 25088.66 and the blue-chip S&P/TSX 60 declined by 0.1% to 1507.30.

Air Canada shares fell by 7.8% to 22.98 Canadian dollars ($16.14) after the Canadian airline released its targets for 2024 and into 2030, which some analysts say fell a little short.

Other market movers:

Dye & Durham has appointed an activist-investor-led slate of candidates to the board after the current board resigned under shareholder pressure, ending months of clashes between investors and management. Shares fell 4.4% to C$28.48.

Lion Electric said it defaulted on some of its debts and was seeking bankruptcy protection under Canadian law to give the maker of electric trucks and buses time to restructure or sell its business. Shares were halted at C$0.35.

Mandalay Resources shares fell 9.7% to C$4.30 after the company lowered the range for its 2025 gold-output guidance as it undergoes planning and organizing, known as mine sequencing, at one of its operations before resuming at higher levels in 2026.

Write to Adriano Marchese at adriano.marchese@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 17, 2024 12:07 ET (17:07 GMT)

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