Suncor, Financials Prop Up the Canadian Market

Canada was back in the green thanks to a collection of blue chips.

Iain Butler

Chief Investment Advisor, Motley Fool Canada Fool since November 2012 Iain Butler, CFA, is Lead Advisor on Discovery Canada 2017. He is also the Chief Investment Advisor for Motley Fool Canada and is the lead advisor on its flagship Stock Advisor Canada product. Before joining the Fool, Iain was a “buy-side” analyst and through this experience is well-versed in the idiosyncratic ways of the Canadian market. His investing interests are centred on scouring the market for interesting businesses that trade at reasonable prices and offer an appealing risk/reward relationship. Since joining the Fool in 2012, Iain dedicates each day to spreading Foolishness throughout this great country!

Published April 16, 2013 4:40 pm EDT

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Although they tried, the gold miners couldn’t drive the Canadian market to another down day on Tuesday. The S&P/TSX Composite gained about 115 points to finish the day up 0.96%.

Even though the spot price of gold made a slight recovery, gaining 1.6%, the miners once again faced significant selling pressure. Barrick Gold (TSX:ABX,NYSE:ABX) was the worst of the large caps, checking in with another decline greater than 5%.

Counteracting the sector that seemingly everybody loves to hate was a collection of blue chip financial names. All of the banks had a good day with the Bank of Nova Scotia (TSX:BNS,NYSE:BNS) and TD Bank (TSX:TD,NYSE:TD) making significant contributions to the index with their returns of 1.4% and 1.3% respectively.

Sunlife (TSX:SLF,NYSE:SLF) and Brookfield Asset Management (TSX:BAM.A,NYSE:BAM), with respective returns of 3.1% and 2.3%, also chipped in to fight the negative strain brought on by the golds.

Aside from gold stocks, resources had a decent day as well. First Quantum (TSX:FM) had a nice bounce, up over 9%, and heavy weight Suncor Energy (TSX:SU,NYSE:SU) was in fact the top contributor to the Canadian market, up a bit more than 3%.

Even Blackberry (TSX:BB,NASDAQ:BBRY) joined in on the fun. The stock turned in a gain of 1.4% thanks to a favourable analyst report.

Foolish Takeaway

Without participation from the gold sector, it will be a challenge for the rest of the Canadian market to really make any headway. However, the bounce that occurred today was a welcome respite from the negative spiral that we had seemingly entered.

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Fool contributor Iain Butler owns shares of Barrick Gold. The Motley Fool has no positions in the stocks mentioned above.