The Canadian stock market continued to slide for the third consecutive session on Monday, as the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in the United States kept rattling the global markets, despite regulators’ efforts to protect depositors. The S&P/TSX Composite Index dived 186 points, or 0.9%, for the session to settle at 19,589 after posting 3.9% losses last week.
While an intraday rally in precious metals prices drove the shares of mining companies sharply higher, other stock market sectors, like energy, financials, and consumer cyclicals, witnessed heavy losses. As investors continue to flee risk in any form, utility stocks also witnessed renewed buying on March 13.
Top TSX Composite movers and active stocks
Bombardier, EQB, Africa Oil, and MEG Energy were the worst-performing TSX stocks yesterday, as they slipped by at least 6.8% each.
Metal and mining stocks such Equinox Gold, First Majestic Silver, and Fortuna Silver Mines were the top performers on the Toronto Stock Exchange, as they inched up by at least 9.5% each with the help of a rally in metals prices.
Despite strength in the mining sector, shares of Ivanhoe Mines (TSX: IVN) remained mixed on Monday after its fourth-quarter earnings miss disappointed investors. IVN stock ended the session with a minor 0.5% rise at $11.16 per share, as the Vancouver-headquartered miner reported an 8.6% year-over-year decline in its adjusted net profit for the December quarter to US$41.9 million.
Ivanhoe’s adjusted profit figure was also significantly lower than Street analysts’ estimate of US$111.2 million. With this, IVN stock now trades with 4.3% year-to-date gains.
Based on their daily trade volume, TD Bank, Suncor Energy, Canadian Natural Resources, and Barrick Gold were the most active Canadian stocks for the day.
TSX today
West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures prices were hovering close to their lowest level in 2023 early Tuesday morning. After staging a sharp rally in the last few sessions, as investors sought safe haven from the banking sector turmoil in gold, metals prices also turned negative in early trading. Given these negative signals from the commodities market, I expect the resource-heavy main TSX index to drop at the open today.
While no major Canadian economic releases are due, the scheduled release of important U.S. inflation data will likely keep the stock market highly volatile this morning.
On the corporate events side, TSX-listed companies like Franco-Nevada, Fortuna Silver Mines, and Converge Technology Solutions are expected to release their latest quarterly results on March 14.
Market movers on the TSX today
