Canadian equities started the week with heightened volatility after rising for three straight sessions, as political uncertainty loomed with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announcing his intention to resign as party leader and prime minister once a new leader is selected. Despite opening 95 points higher than its previous closing, the S&P/TSX Composite Index closed the volatile session with a 74-point decline at 25,000, down 0.3% for the day.
While all key sectors, except technology, ended the session in negative territory, the market selloff was mainly led by healthcare, mining, and real estate stocks.
Top TSX Composite movers and active stocks
Orla Mining, Brookfield Business Partners, Aecon Group, and Bird Construction were the worst-performing TSX stocks, with each witnessing at least 4.7% value erosion.
In contrast, shares of BlackBerry (TSX:BB) jumped nearly 10% to $5.86 per share, making it the top-performing TSX stock for the day. This rally came after Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce significantly raised its target price on BB stock from $3.70 to $6 per share. In another update, the Waterloo-based software firm unveiled a cloud-based framework called QNX Cabin.
BlackBerry’s QNX Cabin framework focuses on accelerating the development of software-defined digital cockpits for vehicles by allowing developers to design, test, and refine code in the cloud. With recent gains, BB stock has soared by 96% over the last five months.
EQB, Superior Plus, and NFI Group were also among the day’s top gainers on the Toronto Stock Exchange as they climbed by at least 4% each.
Based on their daily trade volume, TD Bank, Canadian Natural Resources, TC Energy, Bank of Nova Scotia, and Suncor Energy stood out as the five most active stocks on the exchange.
TSX today
Commodity prices across the board were largely mixed in early morning trading on Tuesday, pointing to a flat opening for the resource-heavy main TSX index today.
Despite domestic PMI (purchasing managers index) data for December, Canadian investors will also keep an eye on the monthly non-manufacturing PMI and job openings from the United States this morning, which could give further direction to stocks. Overall, the TSX benchmark could experience another day of cautious trading as investors weigh mixed commodity prices against ongoing political and economic uncertainties.
Market movers on the TSX today
