Canada’s tech stocks are headed for their worst quarter in nearly four years as the software-heavy sector was hit by fears about artificial intelligence-related disruption and the Middle East conflict sent capital toward energy names.
The S&P/TSX Composite’s information technology subindex has tumbled over 26% in the first three months of the year as of Monday’s close. That put the gauge on track for the biggest quarterly drop since the second quarter of 2022, back when central banks were aggressively raising borrowing costs. Technology was by far the biggest decliner among the 11 major sectors in the broader composite index, which is up about 0.7% in the period.