Thanks, that’s right, thanks to the resource sectors (Materials and Energy), the Canadian market was able to outpace its U.S. peers in Thursday trading. While the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial were in the red by about 0.6% each, the S&P/TSX Composite climbed 0.4%. Not great, but we’ll take it!
As indicated, resources, led by the likes of Suncor Energy (TSX:SU,NYSE:SU) and Goldcorp (TSX:G,NYSE:GG) pulled the Canadian market higher on the day. These stocks were up 1.2% and 2.2% respectively.
Many other materials names made bigger percentage moves but because of their lower weighting in the index, didn’t carry as much influence. The overall top performer on the day was gold company SEMAFO (TSX:SMF) which climbed 11.8%.
Two banks were most responsible for holding the market back. TD Bank (TSX:TD,NYSE:TD) and Royal Bank (TSX:RY,NYSE:RY) were seemingly influenced by the weakness south of the border as the stocks were off by 1.0% and 0.6% respectively.
The Canadian market’s exposure to resources and financials was on display once again today. Because of the heavy weighting that these sectors carry, investors that rely on Canadian Index funds or ETFs severely lack diversification in their portfolio, opening them to undue risks. Click here now to receive “Buy These 5 Companies Instead of Following a Flawed Piece of Advice”, our special report that outlines an easy to implement strategy and 5 Canadian stocks that reduce the risks involved with passively investing in the Canadian market. Simply click here now to receive this report – FREE!
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Fool contributor Iain Butler is short $32 July 2013 put options on Goldcorp. The Motley Fool has no positions in the stocks mentioned above.
