The stock market in Canada turned positive Tuesday, supported by an intraday recovery in metals prices across the board. In addition, investors continued to react positively to the recent U.S. debt ceiling deal, leading to renewed buying in tech stocks. As a result, the S&P/TSX Composite Index climbed by 124 points, or 0.6%, for the day to settle at 20,056.
Despite continued weakness in healthcare and utility stocks, solid gains in other key market sectors like technology, metals mining, and financials kept optimism alive.
Top TSX Composite movers and active stocks
Shares of Shopify (TSX: SHOP) rose nearly 6% yesterday to $85.35 per share, making it the top-performing TSX stock for the day. This rally in SHOP stock came after the Canadian e-commerce giant revealed that it has completed the sale of most of its former Shopify Logistics business to the San Francisco-headquartered logistics company Flexport.
With the completion of this transaction, Shopify gained another 13% equity interest in Flexport besides the stakes it already owned earlier. SHOP stock now trades with 81.6% year-to-date gains.
Bombardier, Canfor, and StorageVault Canada were also among the biggest gainers on the Toronto Stock Exchange in the last session, as they inched up by at least 4.3% each.
In contrast, Bausch Health Companies (TSX: BHC) dived 9.3% to $9.68 per share after it told investors that Norwich Pharmaceuticals has received the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) tentative approval for “its Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) for XIFAXAN (rifaximin) 550 mg.”
While Norwich has sued the FDA in the U.S. District Court seeking final approval to the ANDA, Bausch Health plans to intervene in the case “to vigorously defend its intellectual property,” it noted in a press release. Yesterday’s sharp declines trimmed BHC stock’s year-to-date gains to about 13.9%.
Canopy Growth and Energy Fuels were also among the bottom performers, as they slumped by at least 4% each on June 6.
Based on their daily trade volume, Suncor Energy, Manulife Financial, Enbridge, and Canadian Natural Resources were the most heavily traded TSX stocks.
TSX today
Commodity prices were slightly bearish early Wednesday morning, which could keep the resource-heavy main TSX index under pressure at the open today. Besides U.S. crude oil stockpiles numbers, Canadian investors will closely monitor the Bank of Canada’s latest interest rate decision this morning, which could give further direction to stocks.
On the corporate events side, Canadian companies Dollarama and North West Company are likely to announce their latest quarterly results on June 7.
Market movers on the TSX today
