Canadian stocks turned slightly negative on Wednesday after posting solid 5% gains in the previous couple of sessions combined. The TSX Composite Index fell by 136 points, or 0.7%, in the last session to settle at 19,235. While a consistent strength in West Texas Intermediate crude oil prices helped energy stocks trade positively, a sharp intraday pullback in gold and silver prices drove the shares of Canadian precious metals mining companies lower. Also, a renewed selling pressure in utilities, technology, and real estate stock was mainly responsible for taking the main TSX market benchmark downward.
Top TSX movers and active stocks
Labrador Iron Ore Royalty (TSX: LIF) was the worst-performing TSX stock on Wednesday, as it dived by 6.6% to $28.75 per share. These losses in the shares of the Canadian mining sector-focused investment company came after the American financial services firm Raymond James slashed its target price on LIF stock to $35 per share. While this price target reflected a 22% upside potential from its Wednesday closing price, Street analysts’ growing pessimism on Labrador stock amid weakening metals prices could be responsible for triggering a selloff. Year to date, LIF stock now trades with 23.4% losses.
Shares of IAMGOLD, NovaGold Resources, Innergex Renewable Energy, and Ballard Power Systems were also among the bottom performers, as they fell by at least 5.5% each on October 5.
On the positive side, strengthening oil prices took the shares of Nuvista Energy, Peyto Exploration, Cenovus Energy, Paramount Resources, and Spartan Delta up by at least 4.5% each, making them the top-performing TSX stocks for the day.
Based on their daily trade volume, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Cenovus Energy, Suncor Energy, and Bank of Nova Scotia were the most active TSX Composite components.
TSX today
Early Thursday morning, copper and silver prices were showcasing strength, but oil and gold prices were going sideways. Given these mixed signals from the commodities market, I expect the main TSX benchmark to open on a flat note today. Besides domestic monthly purchasing managers index data, Canadian investors can watch the latest jobless claims numbers from the U.S. market this morning.
On the corporate events front, Richelieu Hardware is set to release its August quarter results on October 6. Bay Street analysts expect the specialty hardware products company’s quarterly earnings to be nearly flat on a year-over-year basis at $0.68 per share.
