Canadian stocks slid for a second consecutive session on Wednesday after the latest Federal Open Market Committee’s meeting minutes showed that most participants are still concerned about “the risks of moving too quickly to ease the stance of policy.” The S&P/TSX Composite Index fell 45 points, or 0.2%, yesterday to settle at 21,172.
Even as strong intraday gains in oil and gas prices drove energy stocks higher, weakness in most other sectors, especially in technology, mining, and financials, pressured the TSX benchmark.
Top TSX Composite movers and active stocks
iA Financial (TSX:IAG) dived by 8.7% to $85.64 per share, a day after announcing its December quarter results on Tuesday. In the fourth quarter of 2023, the Quebec-headquartered financial services holding company’s revenue jumped nearly 61% from a year ago to $6.7 billion with the help of positive growth in assets under management as well as in premiums and deposits.
However, iA Financial’s adjusted quarterly earnings of $2.34 per share missed Street analysts’ expectations of $2.47 per share due partly to a year-over-year weakness in its U.S. operations and Canadian insurance segments. On a year-to-date basis, IAG stock is now down 5.2%.
Wheaton Precious Metals, goeasy, and Shopify were also among the bottom performers on the Toronto Stock Exchange, as they plunged by at least 4% each.
On the flip side, Advantage Energy, NuVista Energy, and Kelt Exploration were the session’s top-performing TSX stocks, inching up by at least 4.8% each.
Based on their daily trade volume, Manulife Financial, Enbridge, Suncor Energy, Canadian Natural Resources, and Royal Bank of Canada were the five most active stocks on the exchange.
TSX today
There was no clear trend in commodity prices early Thursday morning, suggesting that the main TSX index, which is dominated by resource stocks, would start the day with little change. Besides domestic retail sales data, Canadian investors may want to closely monitor monthly manufacturing, services, existing home sales, and weekly jobless claims data from the United States this morning, which could give further direction to stocks.
As corporate earnings season continues in full swing, several TSX-listed companies, including Pembina Pipeline, Lundin Gold, Centerra Gold, Canadian Apartment Properties REIT, Boardwalk REIT, Exchange Income, Altus Group, Eldorado Gold, Enerplus, Capstone Copper, Loblaw, First Majestic Silver, Bausch Health, Quebecor, Teck Resources, Primo Water, and Maple Leaf Foods are likely to announce their latest quarterly results on February 22.
Market movers on the TSX today
