Suncor, Goldcorp Help Put the Canadian Market in the Green

Barely.

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 18, 2013 4:40 pm EDT

Thanks, that’s right, thanks to the resource sectors (Materials and Energy), the Canadian market was able to outpace its U.S. peers in Thursday trading. While the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial were in the red by about 0.6% each, the S&P/TSX Composite climbed 0.4%. Not great, but we’ll take it!

As indicated, resources, led by the likes of Suncor Energy (TSX:SU,NYSE:SU) and Goldcorp (TSX:G,NYSE:GG) pulled the Canadian market higher on the day. These stocks were up 1.2% and 2.2% respectively.

Many other materials names made bigger percentage moves but because of their lower weighting in the index, didn’t carry as much influence. The overall top performer on the day was gold company SEMAFO (TSX:SMF) which climbed 11.8%.

Two banks were most responsible for holding the market back. TD Bank (TSX:TD,NYSE:TD) and Royal Bank (TSX:RY,NYSE:RY) were seemingly influenced by the weakness south of the border as the stocks were off by 1.0% and 0.6% respectively.

The Canadian market’s exposure to resources and financials was on display once again today. Because of the heavy weighting that these sectors carry, investors that rely on Canadian Index funds or ETFs severely lack diversification in their portfolio, opening them to undue risks. Click here now to receive “Buy These 5 Companies Instead of Following a Flawed Piece of Advice”, our special report that outlines an easy to implement strategy and 5 Canadian stocks that reduce the risks involved with passively investing in the Canadian market. Simply click here now to receive this report – FREE!