The ongoing recovery in Canadian stocks picked up the pace on Wednesday after the U.S. Federal Reserve announced its decision to hold interest rates steady for the second consecutive time, leading to renewed buying in growth stocks. That’s why, despite weakening commodity prices, the S&P/TSX Composite Index inched up by 206 points, or 1.1%, in the last session to settle at 19,079, posting its biggest single-day gains in three weeks.
While all key market sectors ended the session in the green territory, the TSX rally was primarily driven by strong gains in utility, consumer, real estate, and technology stocks.
Top TSX Composite movers and active stocks
Shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (TSX: BIP.UN) jumped by 10.8% yesterday to $34.78 per share, making it the top-performing TSX stock for the day. This rally in BIP stock came after the global infrastructure giant announced its quarterly earnings.
In the September quarter, Brookfield Infrastructure’s total revenue rose 23.7% year over year to US$4.5 billion, benefiting from recent acquisitions and organic growth across its base business. With this, the company reported an adjusted quarterly net profit of US$23 million, exceeding analysts’ estimate of US$20 million. Despite the recent rally, however, Brookfield Infrastructure stock is still down 17% on a year-to-date basis.
Centerra Gold, Dye & Durham, and Brookfield Business Partners were also among the top gainers on the Toronto Stock Exchange, as they climbed by more than 7% each.
On the flip side, SSR Mining’s (TSX: SSRM) weaker-than-expected third-quarter financial results seemingly disappointed investors, driving its stock price lower by more than 15% to $16.29 per share. Although the Denver-based gold mining company’s top and bottom lines increased on a year-over-year basis, they fell short of Street analysts’ expectations. After the recent losses, SSRM stock is now down 23% year to date.
Canada Goose and First Quantum Minerals also dived by at least 8% each, making them among the worst-performing TSX stocks for the day.
Based on their daily trade volume, Enbridge, Suncor Energy, Manulife Financial, and First Quantum Minerals were the most active stocks on the exchange.
TSX today
Commodity prices across the board were mixed early Thursday morning, pointing to a flat open for the resource-heavy main TSX index today. While no major domestic economic releases are due, Canadian investors may want to keep an eye on the weekly jobless claims data from the United States this morning.
On the corporate events side, several popular TSX-listed companies, including Shopify, Lightspeed, Cenovus Energy, Bombardier, Canadian Natural Resources, Maple Leaf, Barrick Gold, Gildan Activewear, Canfor, Baytex Energy, OpenText, Fairfax Financial, Badger Infrastructure, Labrador Iron Ore Royalty, ARC Resources, Algoma Steel, Pembina Pipeline, Interfor, are expected to announce their latest quarterly results on November 2.
I expect the ongoing earnings season to keep TSX stocks volatile, as investors continue to assess the Fed’s latest monetary policy report.
Market movers on the TSX today
