The Canadian equities market started the new week on a slightly negative note after rallying in the previous four consecutive sessions as falling commodity prices amid the strengthening U.S. dollar weighed on investors’ sentiments. The S&P/TSX Composite Index slipped by 43 points, or 0.2%, on Monday to settle at 20,410 after reaching its highest closing level in more than two months in the previous session.
Even as healthcare, real estate, and consumer cyclical sectors continued to attract buying, big losses in mining and energy stocks drove the TSX benchmark downward.
Top TSX Composite movers and active stocks
Falling precious metals prices drove mining stocks, like Endeavour Silver, Athabasca Oil, B2Gold, and IAMGOLD, down by at least 4.5% each, making them the worst-performing TSX stocks for the day.
On the positive side, shares of Nuvei (TSX:NVEI) jumped by 6.3% to $30.37 per share after announcing a key business update. On December 4, the Montréal-headquartered payment technology solutions provider told investors that it has partnered with the U.S. tech giant Microsoft “to deliver leading payment experiences for customers of its products, solutions, and services across many of its key markets.”
Under this partnership, Microsoft will use Nuvei’s payment solutions in the Middle East and the African markets for recurring and individual transactions across product ranges, including Office and Xbox. The recent rally helped NVEI stock trim its year-to-date losses to 11.7%.
Tilray Brands, Russel Metals, and West Fraser Timber were also among the top performers on the Toronto Stock Exchange yesterday, as they inched up by at least 4.9% each.
Based on their daily trade volume, Canadian Natural Resources, Suncor Energy, Manulife Financial, Enbridge, and Cenovus Energy stood out as the five most active stocks on the exchange.
TSX today
Most commodity prices were largely bearish early Tuesday morning, pointing to a slightly lower open for the resource-heavy main TSX index today. While no major domestic economic releases are due, Canadian investors may want to closely monitor monthly services PMI (Purchasing Managers Index), non-manufacturing PMI, and job openings numbers from the United States this morning, which could give further direction to stocks.
On the corporate events side, Descartes Systems will announce its latest quarterly results after the market closing bell on December 5. Bay Street analysts expect the supply chain management firm to report earnings of US$0.34 per share for the October quarter with US$146.3 million in revenue.
Market movers on the TSX today
