Canadian equities continued to plunge on Monday, as worries about a looming recession took commodity prices across the board lower. The commodity-heavy TSX Composite Index fell by 154 points, or 0.8%, yesterday to close at 18,327 — its lowest level since March 2021. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures prices have seen a notable decline of more than 14% in September so far, driving a sharp selloff in energy stocks. While energy and metal mining remained among the worst-performing sectors on the TSX in the last session, shares of utilities, real estate, and technology companies also posted weakness.
Top TSX movers and active stocks
Athabasca Oil, Baytex Energy, Headwater Exploration, OceanaGold, and Tamarack Valley Energy were among the worst-performing Canadian stocks, as they dived by more than 7% each on September 26.
On the positive side, Kinaxis (TSX:KXS) stock became the top-performing TSX Composite component in the last session as it rose by 6.2% to trade at $139.22 per share. This rally in KXS stock came after Scotiabank started its coverage of the Canadian software company by giving it a “sector outperform” rating. Scotiabank’s target price for its stock stood at $203, reflecting a 46% upside from its current market price. Despite yesterday’s rally, Kinaxis stock is down 21.5% on a year-to-date basis.
Bausch Health, Cargojet, Bombardier, and Dye & Durham were also among the top TSX performers on Monday, as they rose by more than 3% each.
Based on their daily trade volume, Suncor Energy, TC Energy, Barrick Gold, and Canadian Natural Resources were the most active stocks on the exchange.
TSX today
Early Tuesday morning, commodity prices, including crude oil and metals, were staging a recovery after consistently falling over the last several days. If the commodity market manages to sustain these gains, it could help the main TSX benchmark open higher today with a recovery in energy and metals stocks. While no major domestic data is due today, Canadian investors may want to keep a close eye on the monthly consumer confidence and new home sales data from the U.S. market this morning.
On the corporate events front, BlackBerry is scheduled to release its August quarter results this evening after the market closing bell. Street analysts expect the Waterloo-based tech firm to report a net loss of US$0.07 per share for the quarter.
