The Canadian stock market staged a handsome recovery on Wednesday following the Bank of Canada’s (BoC) much-awaited decision to slash its policy interest rate by 25 basis points. This major announcement, along with a sharp intraday recovery in commodity prices, drove the S&P/TSX Composite Index up by 167 points, or 0.8%, yesterday to 22,145.
While all main sectors ended the session in the green, shares of real estate, metal and mining, and consumer cyclical companies led the TSX rally.
In its latest announcement, the BoC signalled that monetary policy need not be as restrictive any longer due to easing inflationary pressures. Governor Tiff Macklem showed increased confidence that inflation will continue to move closer to the 2% target. He also highlighted that underlying inflation indicators have shown sustained easing despite inflation remaining above target with high shelter price inflation.
Top TSX Composite movers and active stocks
Celestica, First Quantum Minerals, SSR Mining, Aritzia, and MTY Food were the top-performing TSX stocks for the day as they inched up by at least 4.2% each.
In contrast, Fortuna Silver Mines (TSX: FVI) tanked by nearly 14% to $6.97 per share, making it the day’s worst-performing TSX stock. This selloff in FVI stock came after the Vancouver-headquartered precious metals miner announced an offering of $150 million in convertible senior notes due 2029, with an option for an additional $22.5 million.
Fortuna plans to use the proceeds of this offering to repay debt, fund working capital, and for general corporate purposes. Despite the recent losses, FVI stock is still up around 37% on a year-to-date basis.
Great-West Lifeco, Energy Fuels, and Enerplus were also among the bottom performers on the Toronto Stock Exchange as they dived by at least 3.4% each.
Based on their daily trade volume data, Canadian Natural Resources, Suncor Energy, Manulife Financial, Enbridge, and TC Energy were the five most active stocks on the exchange.
TSX today
While gold and silver prices continued to strengthen early Thursday morning, West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures prices were trading on a mixed note. Given that, I expect the TSX mining stocks to witness minor gains at the open today.
Besides the domestic purchasing managers index data, Canadian investors may also want to keep an eye on the weekly jobless claims from the United States this morning.
On the corporate events side, the TSX-listed Saputo will announce its latest quarterly results after the market closing bell today. Street analysts expect the Vancouver-based dairy products firm to post adjusted earnings of $0.36 per share for the March quarter with a quarterly revenue of $4.3 billion.
Market movers on the TSX today
