As commodity prices, especially gold and silver, resumed their upward trend last Friday, the S&P/TSX Composite Index climbed to heights unseen before and set a new intraday record at 22,317. While Canadian stocks gave up some of these gains later during the session, strength across sectors still helped the index settle at an all-time closing high of 22,264 — about 213 points higher from its previous closing level.
While all key sectors ended the day with strong gains, metal mining, healthcare, and technology stocks mainly led the stock market rally. This resulted in the main TSX index closing the week with a 0.4% rise, marking its eighth straight week of gains.
Top TSX Composite movers and active stocks
A continued rally in precious metals prices drove the shares of mining companies like OceanaGold, Wesdome Gold Mines, Pan American Silver, and NovaGold Resources up by at least 5.3% each, making them the top-performing TSX stocks for the day.
Conversely, Tilray, Interfor, Innergex Renewable Energy, and BlackBerry slipped by over 2% each, making them the Toronto Stock Exchange’s bottom performers.
Based on their daily trade volume, TD Bank, Canadian Natural Resources, B2Gold, Suncor Energy, and TC Energy were the session’s five most active stocks.
With its solid 33% weekly gains, First Majestic Silver (TSX:FR) stood out as the top-performing TSX stock for the week. Last week, the Vancouver-based mining company announced its 2023 mineral reserve and resource estimates for its major properties, including San Dimas, Santa Elena, and La Encantada, which are in production, and Jerritt Canyon, which is currently under exploration.
Last year, First Majestic saw 143,454 metres of exploration drilling. Despite a slight decrease in silver and gold ounces in its proven and probable reserves, the company highlighted that its exploration activities successfully offset reserve depletion at Santa Elena. Besides the recent rally in gold and silver prices, this update could be the reason why FR stock popped by over 30% to $10.57 per share last week.
TSX today
In the week ended on April 5, spot gold and silver prices jumped by more than 4% than 10%, respectively. Both the metals extended this rally in early trading on Monday, which could lift TSX mining stocks further at the open today.
While no major domestic economic releases are due this morning, TSX stocks may still remain volatile as investors await the Bank of Canada’s interest rate decision, important inflation data from the United States, and the Fed’s meeting minutes scheduled for later this week.
Market movers on the TSX today
