The Canadian stock market rose for the second consecutive session on Thursday after stronger-than-expected domestic PMI (purchasing managers index) data calmed investors’ concerns about a recession, at least temporarily. This economic data, along with a bullish intraday movement in natural gas and metals prices, drove the S&P/TSX Composite Index up by 103 points, or 0.5%, for the day to 19,138.
Despite minor weakness in market sectors like healthcare and consumer cyclicals, handsome gains in utility, real estate, mining, and bank stocks pushed the TSX benchmark upward.
Top TSX Composite movers and active stocks
Shares of TransAlta (TSX: TA) rallied by 7% yesterday to $11.83 per share after announcing the completion of its TransAlta Renewables’s acquisition deal. Following this deal, TransAlta Renewables stock will be delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange.
The deal is likely to give TransAlta an edge over the competition by significantly expanding its renewable power assets base and portfolio. On a year-to-date basis, TA stock is still down 2.3%.
Celestica, Innergex Renewable Energy, and Fortuna Silver Mines were also among the top-performing TSX stocks yesterday, as they inched up by more than 4% each.
In contrast, BlackBerry tanked by 11.3% to $5.20 per share after announcing intentions to split its cybersecurity and IoT (Internet of Things) business units into two separate entities.
Tilray Brands, Lithium Americas, and Ballard Power Systems were also among the bottom performers on the TSX, as they slipped by at least 3.5% each.
Based on their daily trade volume, TC Energy, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Canadian Natural Resources, Algonquin Power & Utilities, and Power Corporation of Canada were the five most active on the exchange.
TSX today
Commodity prices across the board were largely mixed early Friday morning, pointing to a flat open for the resource-heavy main TSX index today.
Besides the domestic employment change and unemployment rate figures, Canadian investors may also want to closely monitor the important labour market data from the United States this morning. These reports could give further direction to stocks by setting investors’ expectations for the Canadian and the U.S. central banks’ future actions.
Considering the ongoing high market volatility, TSX investors may also want to remain cautious and avoid making large short-term trading positions today ahead of the long Thanksgiving Day weekend.
Market movers on the TSX today
