Canadian stocks continued to decline for a second consecutive day on Thursday, as a consistent rise in bond yields led to a renewed bout of risk aversion. As 10-year treasury bond yields in the United States and Canada reached close to their highest level since late 2007, the S&P/TSX Composite Index plunged by 102 points, or 0.5%, yesterday to 19,349.
Even as a bullish movement in precious metals and crude oil prices limited the losses in mining and energy stocks, big losses in other key market sectors like healthcare, real estate, and consumer noncyclicals pressured the TSX benchmark.
Top TSX Composite movers and active stocks
Lithium Americas, Allied Properties REIT, Bausch Health Companies, and NorthWest Healthcare Properties REIT were the worst-performing TSX stocks in the last session, diving by at least 4.8% each.
On the positive side, shares of Tamarack Valley Energy (TSX:TVE) defied the bear market gravity to rally by more than 5% to $4.16 per share. These gains in TVE stock came after the Calgary-headquartered oil and gas firm announced its intentions to sell its non-core west central Alberta assets to a private operator in a cash deal worth $123 million.
Tamarack expects this deal to help it increase the focus on “its highly economic oil-weighted plays” and strengthen its balance sheet by reducing debt. Despite its sharp gains in the last session, TVE stock is still down 6.7% on a year-to-date basis. Interestingly, Tamarack distributes its dividend payouts every month and currently has an annualized dividend yield of 3.8%.
Baytex Energy, Energy Fuels, and Silvercrest Metals were also among the top gainers on the Toronto Stock Exchange, as they rose at least 3.7% each.
Based on their daily trade volume, TC Energy, Enbridge, Baytex Energy, Algonquin Power & Utilities, and Tourmaline Oil were the exchange’s five most heavily traded stocks.
TSX today
As the weakening economic outlook and growing geopolitical tensions continue to take a toll on investors’ sentiments, gold spot prices have jumped nearly 8% in the last two weeks. Although oil and gold prices continued to strengthen further early Friday morning, most other commodities were trading on a slightly negative note. Given these mixed signals, I expect the resource-heavy TSX index to remain flat at the open today.
On the economic data front, Canadian investors may want to closely monitor the latest domestic retail sales numbers this morning. Overall, the TSX may remain jittery as investors set their expectations for the third-quarter corporate earnings season, the pace of which will pick up over the next two weeks.
Market movers on the TSX today
