Growing hopes of interest-rate cuts in the United States, largely upbeat corporate earnings, and firm metals prices continued to drive the Canadian stock market to new heights on Friday. After posting an intraday high of 20,750, the S&P/TSX Composite Index settled with 129 points, or 0.6%, gains at 22,674.
While nearly all main sectors ended the session in green territory, shares of mining and consumer cyclical companies led the market rally during the session. With this, the TSX benchmark not only crossed the 22,600 level for the first time in history but also posted the best weekly gains since November 2023, inching up by 2.8% during the week ended on July 12.
Top TSX Composite movers and active stocks
Aritzia (TSX:ATZ) soared around 15% to $47.66 per share, making it the top-performing TSX stock for the day. This strong rally in ATZ stock came a day after the Vancouver-headquartered apparel designer and retailer announced its stronger-than-expected quarterly financial results.
In the quarter ended in May 2024, Aritzia’s total revenue rose 7.8% year over year to $498.6 million, driven by a 13% rise in U.S. sales due to real estate expansion and brand growth. More importantly, lower markdowns and cost savings helped the company deliver adjusted quarterly earnings of $0.22 per share, beating Street analysts’ expectations of $0.16 per share by a wide margin. After the rally, ATZ stock is up 73.3% on a year-to-date basis.
Ballard Power Systems, Filo, Spin Master, and Capstone Copper were also among the day’s top performers on the Toronto Stock Exchange, climbing by more than 5% each.
In contrast, Richelieu Hardware and Osisko Mining slipped by at least 2% each, making them the session’s worst-performing TSX stocks.
Based on their daily trade volume, TD Bank, Canadian Natural Resources, Barrick Gold, Baytex Energy, and Shopify were the five most active stocks on the exchange.
TSX today
Commodity prices across the board were mixed early Monday morning, pointing to a flat open for the resource-heavy main TSX index today.
While no major domestic economic releases are due this morning, Canadian investors may want to keep an eye on the Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell’s comments about the timing of rate cuts at an event at the Economic Club of Washington this afternoon, which could give further direction to stocks.
On the corporate events side, the TSX-listed PrairieSky Royalty will announce its latest quarterly results after the market closing bell on July 15. Street analysts expect the energy sector-focused company to post earnings of $0.35 per share for the June quarter.
Market movers on the TSX today
