Canada's main stock index fell Tuesday due to lower shares of materials and energy groups.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index fell 72.93 points, or 0.45 percent, to close the day at 16,298.88.

Eight of the index's 10 main groups closed lower.

The materials group, which includes precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, lost 1.2 percent while the energy group declined 1.9 percent.

The most influential drops included oil and gas producer Encana Corp ECA.TO, which dipped five percent to 16.72 Canadian dollars (13.37 U.S. dollars).

Barrick Gold Corp ABX.TO fell 3.1 percent to 18.88 Canadian dollars (15 U.S. dollars) and diversified miner Teck Resources Ltd TECKb.TO was down 4.1 percent to 37.06 Canadian dollars (29.6 U.S. dollars).

BlackBerry Ltd BB.TO dipped 1.7 percent to 17.18 Canadian dollars (13.7 U.S. dollars).

SSR Mining Inc SSRM.TO surged 12.3 percent to 11.48 Canadian dollars (9.1 U.S. dollars) after the precious metal miner reported fourth-quarter earnings.