The Canadian stock market slipped for the third consecutive session on Wednesday, as the U.S. Federal Reserve hiked its benchmark rate by 25 basis points to 5.25%. The S&P/TSX Composite Index plunged by 53 points to settle at 20,355 — its lowest closing level since April 10.
Besides the Fed’s interest rate hike, corporate earnings events and consistent steep declines in oil prices also weighed on the main TSX index. While shares of healthcare and utility companies saw renewed buying, other key sectors like consumer, energy, industrials, and technology witnessed heavy losses.
Top TSX Composite movers and active stocks
Shares of Aritzia (TSX: ATZ) crashed 20.8% yesterday to $34.15 per share, a day after its quarterly results came out. In the fourth quarter of its fiscal year 2023 (ended in February), the Vancouver-headquartered apparel retailer’s revenue jumped 43.5% from a year ago to $637.6 million, primarily with the help of growing demand in the United States and strong performance of its e-commerce segment.
Aritzia posted a 17.7% year-over-year gain in its adjusted earnings to $0.40 per share, beating analysts’ estimate of $0.36 per share. However, the company expects its revenue growth to be between 10% to 14% in its fiscal year 2024, significantly slower than 46.9% in the fiscal year 2023. This dismal outlook could be the main reason why ATZ stock tanked after its earnings event and now trades with nearly 28% year-to-date losses.
Thomson Reuters, Descartes Systems, and Kinaxis were also among the worst performers on the Toronto Stock Exchange in the last session, as they fell more than 4% each.
On the positive side, Equinox Gold, Tilray, EQB, and West Fraser Timber gained at least 3.9% each, making them the top-performing TSX Composite components for the day.
Based on their daily trade volume, Enbridge, Suncor Energy, Manulife Financial, and Cenovus Energy were the most active Canadian stocks.
TSX today
Commodity prices across the board were mixed early Thursday morning, pointing to a flat open for the TSX index today. Besides the domestic purchasing managers index data, Canadian investors may want to monitor the weekly jobless claims numbers from the U.S. market this morning.
On the corporate events front, several large TSX-listed companies, including Telus Corp, Telus International, Open Text, Labrador Iron Ore Royalty, BCE, Canadian Natural Resources, Bausch Health, Shopify, Pembina Pipeline, and ARC Resources, are expected to release their latest quarterly results on May 4.
Market movers on the TSX today
