The Canadian equities market bounced back slightly on Tuesday with the help of an intraday recovery in most commodity prices and a rally in cannabis stocks following Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s call to make recreational marijuana legal. After sliding by 247 points in the last two sessions, the S&P/TSX Composite Index advanced by 86 points, or 0.4%, yesterday to settle at 20,958.
Besides a rally in pot stocks, moderate gains in other market sectors, including financials and industrials, also helped the TSX benchmark break a two-day losing streak.
Top TSX Composite movers and active stocks
Lithium Americas (Argentina), Tilray Brands, Lithium Americas, and Precision Drilling were the top-performing TSX stocks as they inched up by at least 5.3% each.
In contrast, shares of International Petroleum (TSX: IPCO) dived by 5.5% to $13.57 per share after announcing its worse-than-expected quarterly financial results. Although the Vancouver-based oil and gas producer’s 2023 production reached a record of 51,100 barrels of oil equivalent per day, its fourth-quarter earnings of US$0.22 per share missed analysts’ expectations of US$0.33 per share by a wide margin, partly due to higher capital expenditures.
International Petroleum’s annual guidance also disappointed investors as it expects net production to drop and operating costs to increase in 2024 on a year-over-year basis. IPCO stock has now lost nearly 14% of its value this year.
Energy Fuels and FirstService were also among the session’s bottom performers on the Toronto Stock Exchange as they fell by at least 2.4% each.
According to the exchange’s daily trade volume data, Manulife Financial, Enbridge, Suncor Energy, Royal Bank of Canada, and Bank of Montréal stood out as the most active stocks.
TSX today
Commodity prices were largely mixed early Wednesday morning, pointing to a flat open for the resource-heavy main TSX index today. While no major economic releases from Canada are due, energy investors may want to keep an eye on the weekly crude oil stockpile data from the United States this morning.
On the corporate events side, TSX-listed companies like Sun Life Financial, Brookfield Asset Management, and ATS will announce their latest quarterly results on February 7.
Market movers on the TSX today
