The Canadian stock market turned positive on Friday, as traders adjusted their portfolios ahead of the busy week of corporate earnings reports. The S&P/TSX Composite Index rose 62 points, or 0.3%, for the session to settle at 20,693 — its highest closing level since February 15. With this, the index ended the fourth consecutive week in green territory and extended its month-to-date gains to 3%.
While an intraday selloff in metals prices drove the shares of mining companies lower, healthy gains in other market sectors, such as technology, consumer non-cyclicals, and utilities, pushed the Canadian market benchmark up.
Top TSX Composite movers and active stocks
Canada Goose, Algonquin Power & Utilities, Shopify, and AltaGas were among the top-performing TSX stocks for the day, as they climbed by at least 2.4% each.
On the flip side, shares of First Quantum Minerals and Hudbay Minerals plunged at least 3.8% each, making them the session’s worst performers on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Based on their daily trade volume, B2Gold, Royal Bank of Canada, TD Bank, and Algonquin Power & Utilities were the most active stocks on the exchange.
Interestingly, shares of BELLUS Health (TSX:BLU) ended the last week with an eye-popping 107.7% positive return at $19.57 per share. This steep rally in BLU stock took place after the London-based GSK announced its intentions to acquire BELLUS in a deal worth about US$2 billion. BELLUS Health stock, which was trading in negative territory on a year-to-date basis until the start of the last week, is now up 76.6% in 2023.
TSX today
Commodity prices across the board were mixed early Monday morning, pointing to a flat open for the main TSX index today. While no key economic releases are due, investors’ expectations from the upcoming U.S. consumer confidence data due Tuesday may keep stocks volatile.
On the corporate events front, Choice Properties REIT and Canadian National Railway are expected to announce their latest quarterly results on April 24.
Market movers on the TSX today
