Canadian stocks went sideways on Thursday in the lack of any major catalysts or drivers. The S&P/TSX Composite Index ended the volatile session with a minor 11-point gain at 20,969, as 10-year bond yields remained elevated.
Even as industrial and tech stocks witnessed renewed buying, most other sectors, mainly healthcare and utilities, fell sharply. In addition, weakening metals prices weighed on metal and mining stocks, restricting the TSX benchmark’s upward movement.
Top TSX Composite movers and active stocks
Birchcliff Energy, Advantage Energy, and Shopify were the top-performing TSX stocks, as they inched up by at least 4.3% each.
Shares of Nuvei (TSX:NVEI) also rose more than 4% to $34.96 per share, making it among yesterday’s top performers on the Toronto Stock Exchange. These gains in NVEI stock came after the Montréal-based payment technology provider launched its enhanced omnichannel payments solution globally, marking its availability outside North America for the first time.
Nuvei’s enhanced solution, which combines its online and in-store payment technologies into a single platform, aims to offer businesses flexible and scalable technology to improve customer checkout experiences across various channels. After declining by 6.1% in January, NVEI stock has gone up by 7% so far in February.
In contrast, Finning International, NovaGold Resources, Africa Oil, and NorthWest Healthcare Properties REIT slipped by at least 3.7% each to become among the session’s bottom-performing TSX stocks.
Based on their daily trade volume, Enbridge, Manulife Financial, Suncor Energy, Toronto-Dominion Bank, and Bank of Montréal were the most heavily traded stocks on the exchange.
TSX today
Most commodity prices, except in base metals, were bearish early Thursday morning, which could pressure the resource-heavy main TSX index at the open today.
While no major domestic economic releases are due, Canadian investors may want to watch the weekly jobless claims data from the United States this morning.
Despite no major economic events scheduled today, TSX stocks may remain volatile as the fourth-quarter corporate earnings season gains steam. Several Canadian companies, including Trisura, Russel Metals, Saputo, TFI International, Interfor, Thomson Reuters, Bombardier, Lightspeed Commerce, Brookfield, Cameco, Colliers International, and BCE, are likely to announce their latest quarterly results on February 8.
Market movers on the TSX today
