After falling for three consecutive sessions, Canadian stocks rebounded on Friday as investors reacted positively to strong U.S. manufacturing numbers and largely better-than-expected corporate earnings. The S&P/TSX Composite Index climbed by 98 points, or 0.4%, to settle at 24,255. However, the market benchmark still ended the week with a 0.9% decline, posting its second straight week in the red.
Although shares of some utility and real estate companies trended downward, solid gains in many key sectors, including healthcare, consumer cyclicals, and technology, lifted the TSX in the last session.
Top TSX Composite movers and active stocks
Air Canada (TSX:AC) stock jumped 14% to $21.51 per share, delivering its best single-day gains since November 2020. This rally in its stock came after the Saint Laurent-based passenger airline company announced its far better-than-expected third-quarter earnings and a new share-buyback program.
In the quarter ended in September 2024, Air Canada’s revenue slipped 3.8% year over year to $6.1 billion due to lower passenger revenues. Nevertheless, increased capacity and favourable tax asset recognition helped the company post strong adjusted quarterly earnings of $2.57 per share, crushing Street analysts’ expectations of $1.58 per share by a huge margin. The Canadian flag carrier also announced a new share buyback program to reduce shareholder dilution caused by the pandemic. On a year-to-date basis, Air Canada stock is now up over 15%.
MDA Space, Fairfax Financial, and Kinaxis were also among the day’s top performers on the Toronto Stock Exchange, with each climbing by at least 7.3%.
In contrast, Centerra Gold, Energy Fuels, Eldorado Gold, and Imperial Oil slipped by more than 5% each, making them the session’s worst-performing TSX stocks.
Based on their daily trade volume, Air Canada, Veren, Enbridge, Baytex Energy, and Manulife Financial were the most active stocks on the exchange.
TSX today
Most commodity prices, especially crude oil and base metals, were bullish early Monday morning, pointing to a higher opening for the resource-heavy main TSX index today.
While no major economic announcements are due this morning, stocks may continue to remain highly volatile this week as investors closely monitor the U.S. presidential election and the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision.
On the corporate events side, many TSX-listed companies, like InterRent REIT, Sun Life Financial, Cargojet, Topaz Energy, Toromont Industries, and Brookfield Asset Management, will announce their latest quarterly results today.
Market movers on the TSX today
