Air Canada and Westjet Plus a Couple Others Are Up In a Down Week

It’s been a tough week for all but a select few Canadian stocks. These 4 managed to dodge the haircut that the broad market took.

Iain Butler

Chief Investment Advisor, Motley Fool Canada Fool since November 2012 Iain Butler, CFA, is Lead Advisor on Discovery Canada 2017. He is also the Chief Investment Advisor for Motley Fool Canada and is the lead advisor on its flagship Stock Advisor Canada product. Before joining the Fool, Iain was a “buy-side” analyst and through this experience is well-versed in the idiosyncratic ways of the Canadian market. His investing interests are centred on scouring the market for interesting businesses that trade at reasonable prices and offer an appealing risk/reward relationship. Since joining the Fool in 2012, Iain dedicates each day to spreading Foolishness throughout this great country!

Published April 5, 2013 12:29 pm EDT

| More on: CSU

Putting together a collection of Canadian stocks that are actually up this week is roughly equivalent to finding a needle in a haystack. With a bit of manual labour however, 4 money makers from this first week of April did eventually turn up.

Tabled below are the companies and their 5 day returns:

Company	5 Day Return
Air Canada (TSX:AC.B)	+2.3%
Constellation Software (TSX:CSU)	+2.0%
Westjet Airlines (TSX:WJA)	+1.2%
Potash Corp. (TSX:POT,NYSE:POT)	+0.1%

Source: Google Finance

None of these stocks have set their owners up for life by any means this week, but to earn a positive return in the face of a market that has declined by 3.6% thus far (Friday morning) bodes well for when the clouds once again part.

The epicentre for this week’s Canadian meltdown was resources, specifically Materials and Energy. That Potash was able to keep its shareholders above water in the face of strong selling pressure all around it speaks to the defensive characteristics of this name.

Constellation Software has nothing to do with either the Materials or Energy space and therefore was shielded from the pain that occurred.

And what about Air Canada and Westjet? Well, both stocks have been on fire, up 83% and 26% respectively year-to-date. Industry traffic, strong pricing and range-bound fuel prices have combined to create a nice tailwind for these two airlines.

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Fool contributor Iain Butler is short $40 July 2013 put options on Potash Corp. The Motley Fool has no positions in the stocks mentioned above.