The Canadian stock market rose for the second consecutive session, as investors showed confidence in a gradual economic recovery following the Federal Reserve’s indication of potential interest rate cuts next year. This optimism, the release of strong U.S. retail sales numbers, and strengthening commodity prices drove the S&P/TSX Composite Index up by 149 points, or 0.7%, on Thursday to 20,779 — its highest closing level in more than 18 months.
While all key market sectors, except consumer noncyclicals, ended the session in the green territory, the TSX rally was mainly driven by big gains in real estate, metal mining, and financial stocks.
Top TSX Composite movers and active stocks
Transcontinental (TSX: TCL.A) jumped 10.6% to $12.88 per share, extending its week-to-date gains to more than 13%. The recent rally in its stock started earlier this week after the Montreal-based printing and packaging firm announced its latest quarterly results after the market closing bell on Tuesday.
Despite a favourable currency exchange rate, Transcontinental’s revenue fell 2.8% year over year to $779.7 million due mainly to lower volume. Nonetheless, the company’s recent cost-reduction initiatives and organic growth in its media sector drove its adjusted quarterly earnings up by 5.1% from a year ago to $0.83 per share, crushing analysts’ expectations of $0.64 per share. Even after its recent rally, however, Transcontinental stock is still down nearly 16% on a year-to-date basis.
OceanaGold, Ero Copper, and BRP were also among the top performers on the Toronto Stock Exchange in the last session, as they rallied by more than 8% each.
In contrast, shares of Empire Company tanked by 11.2% to $34.57 per share after its quarterly earnings missed Street analysts’ estimates.
Similarly, Osisko Mining (TSX: OSK), Stella-Jones, and Loblaw Companies were also among the worst-performing TSX stocks for the day, as they plunged by at least 4.8% each.
Despite a rally in most other mining stocks, Osisko Mining slipped yesterday after revealing that it has acquired additional shares of O3 Mining through a private placement transaction. With this acquisition, Osisko now holds approximately 21.3% of the issued and outstanding shares of O3 Mining. The shares were bought for investment purposes, and Osisko may consider changing its investment based on future circumstances. After falling by 10.2% in the last session, OSK stock has now lost 27% of its value so far in 2023.
Based on their daily trade volume, Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Pembina Pipeline, TC Energy, and Scotiabank were the five most active stocks on the exchange.
TSX today
After the release of stronger-than-expected industrial production data from China, commodity prices across the board were slightly bullish early Friday morning, which could lift the main TSX index at the open today. While no major domestic economic releases are due, Canadian investors will keep a close eye on the latest services purchasing managers index data from the United States this morning.
In the afternoon, TSX investors may also want to pay attention to the Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem’s remarks about the economy during his speech at Canadian Club Toronto.
Market movers on the TSX today
