Canadian stocks remained choppy Tuesday, as investors continued to assess the possible impact of rising oil prices and weakening economic indicators on the overall financial landscape. Despite rising by as much as 83 points during the intraday trading, the S&P/TSX Composite Index gave up gains later to end the session with a three-point loss at 20,276.
After the release of weaker-than-expected U.S. manufacturing numbers earlier this week, Tuesday’s disappointing job openings data added pessimism. While shares of mining, technology, and utility companies inched up on the TSX yesterday, heavy losses in other major market sectors like healthcare, consumer cyclicals, and real estate pressured the index.
Top TSX Composite movers and active stocks
Dye & Durham, Spin Master, Ero Copper, and Algoma Steel were the worst-performing TSX stocks yesterday, as they plunged by more than 5% each.
On the positive side, rallying gold and silver prices drove shares of precious metal miners like MAG Silver, Kinross Gold, Agnico Eagle Mines, and Equinox Gold up by at least 5.4% each, making them the top performers on the Toronto Stock Exchange for the day.
Share of Rogers Communications (TSX: RCI.B) rose 3.5% to $63.55 per share, a day after the Canadian telecommunication giant announced the completion of its merger with its home market rival Shaw Communications. After this deal, Rogers plans to expand its network across Canada, make 5G services more affordable, and connect more Western Canadian communities to fast and reliable networks in the next few years.
Notably, analysts from TD Securities and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce raised their target prices on Rogers stock on April 4, which could be another reason why it witnessed renewed buying. After ending 2022 with 5.2% gains, its stock now trades without any notable change on a year-to-date basis in 2023.
Based on their daily trade volume, TC Energy, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Bank of Nova Scotia, and Canadian Natural Resources were the most active stocks on the exchange.
TSX today
While most commodity prices were going sideways early Wednesday morning, gold continued to trade on a bullish note. Given that, TSX gold stocks could open slightly higher from their previous closing levels today. Canadian investors may also want to closely monitor the important monthly non-farm employment and nonmanufacturing purchasing managers index from the United States this morning.
On the corporate events side, the TSX-listed North West Company is set to release its latest quarterly results on April 5. Bay Street analysts expect the Winnipeg-based retailer to report $0.56 per share in earnings for the January quarter with a revenue of $596.2 million.
Market movers on the TSX today
