The Canadian stock market declined for the fifth consecutive session on Friday, despite an intraday recovery in crude oil and natural gas prices, as fears of more interest rate hikes haunted investors. The S&P/TSX Composite Index ended the highly volatile session at 19,780 — 12 points lower from its previous closing level.
Although some market sectors like utilities and energy saw renewed buying, weakness in the shares of healthcare, real estate, and metal mining companies pressured the index. With this, the main TSX benchmark witnessed a massive 4.1% value erosion last week, posting its worst weekly performance since mid-June 2022.
Top TSX Composite movers and active stocks
Alamos Gold, Bausch Health Companies, Telus International, and Osisko Mining were the worst-performing TSX stocks in the last session, as they plunged by at least 2% each.
On the positive side, shares of Energy Fuels, Denison Mines, ATS, and Dye & Durham inched up by at least 3.2% each, making them the day’s top performers on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Based on their daily trade volume, Power Corporation of Canada, Canadian Natural Resources, Enbridge, TC Energy, and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce were the five most active stocks on the exchange.
Brookfield Asset Management (TSX:BAM) plunged nearly 6% last week, trimming its year-to-date gains to 18.6%. These losses in BAM stock came after the Australian superannuation fund, AustralianSuper, raised its stake in Origin Energy by more than 1%, increasing its total shareholding to 13.68%.
In a press release, AustralianSuper called Origin’s current stock prices substantially below its estimate of the long-term value. Notably, in the first quarter of 2023, Brookfield and its institutional partners signed an agreement to acquire Origin Energy at AU$8.91 per share, which was close to its market price of AU$8.87 per share as of September 22.
TSX today
After last week’s big selloff, the main TSX index now trades with only 2% year-to-date gains. The resource-heavy TSX benchmark might remain flat at the open today, as commodity prices across the board were mixed early Monday morning.
While no major domestic economic releases are due today, Canadian investors may still want to remain cautious before the release of important U.S. consumer confidence data due tomorrow morning.
Market movers on the TSX today
