Canadian stocks turned negative on Monday after posting strong 2% gains last week, as investors remained worried about the COVID situation and related protests in China. The S&P/TSX Composite Index dived by 163 points, or 0.8%, to settle at 20,220, erasing all the gains the benchmark made in the previous three sessions. While weakness in commodity prices drove mining and energy stocks on the exchange downward, other key sectors, like real estate, healthcare, and financials, also witnessed a selloff, as macroeconomic concerns continued to be in focus.
Top TSX movers and active stocks
Commodity-linked stocks such as Endeavour Silver, Equinox Gold, First Majestic Silver, Ballard Power Systems, and Ero Copper were among the worst-performing TSX stocks yesterday, as they fell by at least 6.8% each.
On the positive side, shares of Bombardier, BELLUS Health, Shopify, and Loblaw Companies inched up by at least 3% each, making them the top-performing TSX Composite components for the day.
Based on their daily trade volume, Suncor Energy, Great-West Lifeco, Enbridge, Manulife Financial, and Cenovus Energy were the five most active stocks on the Canadian exchange.
TSX today
After witnessing a sharp selloff in the previous session, commodity prices across the board were trading on a strong bullish note early Tuesday morning. Given that, I expect the resource-heavy TSX index to open higher today. Besides Canadian monthly gross domestic product data, investors may want to keep a close eye on the latest consumer confidence numbers this morning, which could give further direction to stocks.
The Canadian bank sector earnings season kicked off today, as Bank of Nova Scotia (TSX:BNS) announced its quarterly results this morning.
In the October quarter, the bank’s total revenue fell by 0.8% from a year ago to $7.6 billion. Despite an increase in its net interest income, weakness in Scotiabank’s global wealth management business due to challenging market conditions drove its adjusted quarterly earnings down by 1.9% year over year to $2.06 per share.
On the positive side, Scotiabank’s earnings were better than analysts’ expectations of $2.00 per share. On a year-to-date basis, BNS stock currently trades with 20.2% losses.
The telecom company Shaw Communications is also expected to release its latest quarterly results on November 29.
