TSX falls on dour jobless data, vaccine rollout delays

Canada's main stock index fell on Thursday as a jump in monthly jobless claims raised concerns over the country's economic recovery, while delays in rollouts of coronavirus vaccines also hit sentiment.

Canada lost 231,200 jobs in January, the largest decrease since May last year, led by declines in the trade, transportation and utilities and leisure and hospitality sectors, a report from payroll services provider ADP showed.

At 9:41 a.m. ET (14:41 GMT), the Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index was down 70.05 points, or 0.38%, at 18,304.73.

Canada's COVID-19 vaccination campaign started on the same day in December as the United States, but it now lags dozens of countries, including its southern neighbor.

The energy sector climbed 0.3% as US crude prices were up 0.5% a barrel, while Brent crude added 0.2%.

The financials sector slipped 0.3%. The industrials sector fell 0.8%.

The materials sector, which includes precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, added 0.3% as gold futures rose 0.6% to $1,780.8 an ounce.

On the TSX, 67 issues were higher, while 149 issues declined for a 2.22-to-1 ratio to the downside, with 28.62 million shares traded.

The largest percentage gainers on the TSX were Crescent Point Energy, which jumped 13.4%, and Aphria Inc , which rose 4.8%.

Canfor Corp fell 4.1%, the most on the TSX, while the second-biggest decliner was Ballard Power, down 3.9%.

The most heavily traded shares by volume were Manulife Financial, down 0.8%; Purpose Bitcoin ETF, which was flat, and Fortis Inc, down 0.7%.

The TSX posted eight new 52-week highs and no new lows.

Across all Canadian issues there were 29 new 52-week highs and eight new lows, with total volume of 63.38 million shares.