Canadian equities continued to slide on Friday to end the fourth out of the last five weeks in the red. Investors continued to cut their risk exposure ahead of this week’s U.S. Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision. As a result, the TSX Composite Index fell by 174 points, or 0.9%, on September 16 to settle at 19,386. While nearly all key sectors trended downward in the last session, shares of healthcare, industrials, technology, and energy companies mainly led the market selloff.
Top TSX movers and active stocks
Cargojet, Canopy Growth, Brookfield Business Partners, Vermilion Energy, and Shopify were the worst-performing TSX stocks Friday, as they fell by at least 6% each.
On the positive side, Labrador Iron Ore Royalty (TSX:LIF) was the top-performing TSX Composite component in the last session, as it rose by 5.6% to $31.20 per share. This rally in LIF stock came a day after the Toronto-based royalty company announced its third-quarter dividend of $1 per share, reflecting an increase of around 11% over its second-quarter dividend of $0.90 per share. Labrador Iron Ore currently has a solid annual dividend yield of more than 11%. However, its stock has lost nearly 17% of its value in 2022 so far due mainly to recent weakness in commodity prices.
Shares of metal miners like Capstone Copper, Centerra Gold, New Gold, and Dundee Precious Metals were also among the top gainers on September 16, as they rose by at least 3.5% each with the help of an intraday recovery in silver and copper prices.
Based on their daily trade volume, Baytex Energy, New Gold, Suncor Energy, and Cenovus Energy were the most active stocks on the exchange.
TSX today
Most key Asian and European indexes traded on a negative note on Monday. Similarly, commodity prices across the board were showcasing weakness early this morning, pointing to a lower opening for the commodity-heavy main TSX index today. Overall, I expect stocks to remain highly volatile in the next few sessions, as investors continue to speculate about the Fed’s upcoming policy move and economic projections scheduled for Wednesday this week.
