The Canadian stock market went sideways on Tuesday as mixed domestic bank earnings, worse-than-expected U.S. consumer confidence numbers, and weak precious metals prices weighed on investors’ sentiments. The S&P/TSX Composite Index ended the volatile session with a five-point decline at 21,319.
Even as shares of healthcare and consumer cyclical companies witnessed renewed buying, losses in some industrial and bank stocks dragged the TSX index down.
Top TSX Composite movers and active stocks
Africa Oil, OceanaGold, and Eldorado Gold were the worst-performing TSX Composite components in the last session as they plunged by at least 3.7% each.
Bank of Montréal (TSX:BMO) was also among the bottom performers on the Toronto Stock Exchange as its shares dived by 3.6% after its quarterly financial results came out. In the first quarter of its fiscal year 2024 (ended in January), economic uncertainties affected the revenue growth in the bank’s market-sensitive segments. With this, its quarterly revenue of $7.85 billion missed beat analysts’ expectations of $8.38 billion.
In addition, a continued surge in its provisions for credit losses led to a notable year-over-year decline in Bank of Montréal’s adjusted quarterly earnings to $2.56 per share, lower than Street’s estimates of $3.02 per share. After ending 2023 with 6.9% gains, BMO stock has seen 6.7% value erosion this year, currently trading at $122.31 per share.
On the flip side, Ballard Power Systems, Stelco Holdings, Ero Copper, and Algoma Steel inched up by at least 6% each, making them the day’s top-performing TSX stocks.
Based on their daily trade volume data, Suncor Energy, Great-West Lifeco, Bank of Nova Scotia, Manulife Financial, and Bank of Montréal were the five most active stocks on the exchange.
TSX today
Crude oil and natural gas prices were trading on a firm note early Wednesday morning. At the same time, metals prices were largely bearish. Given these mixed signals from the commodities market, I expect the resource-heavy main TSX index to remain flat at the open today.
While no major domestic economic releases are due, Canadian investors will keep a close eye on the latest quarterly growth numbers in the U.S. gross domestic product this morning, which could give further direction to stocks.
On the corporate events side, several TSX-listed companies, including Pason Systems, George Weston, Royal Bank of Canada, National Bank of Canada, Capital Power, Stantec, Kinaxis, Spin Master, EQB, Baytex Energy, Granite REIT, and WSP Global, are likely to announce their latest quarterly results on February 28.
Market movers on the TSX today
