Canadian equities remained highly volatile on Wednesday, as investors closely monitored corporate results and the U.S. Federal Reserve’s monetary policy event. The Fed announced its decision to raise the key policy rates by 25 basis points, taking interest rates in the country to their highest level in over two decades. As a result, despite opening 37% lower from its previous closing, the S&P/TSX Composite Index recovered later during the session to settle at 20,562, climbing by 10 points for the day.
On the one hand, consumer non-cyclicals and technology stocks in Canada fell after the Fed’s interest rate hike decision. On the other hand, key market sectors like healthcare, industrials, and financials largely traded positively.
Top TSX Composite movers and active stocks
Tilray (TSX:TLRY) rallied nearly 16% yesterday to $2.55 per share after releasing its May quarter financial results. For the quarter, the cannabis giant reported US$0.15 per share in adjusted net losses, much wider than analysts’ expectation of five cents per share loss.
Nonetheless, Tilray’s quarterly revenue of US$184.2 million reflected a 20.1% year-over-year increase and exceeded Street’s estimates of US$153.7 million. Despite this rally, TLRY stock is still down more than 30% on a year-to-date basis.
MAG Silver (TSX:MAG) climbed 10.5% to $16.38 per share after announcing its second-quarter production updates from its Mexico-based Juanicipio project. In a press release, the Vancouver-headquartered metal mining company informed investors that “ramp up of milling activities have been progressing to plan with Juanicipio declaring commercial production during the quarter and achieving increased production of all metals.” Year to date, MAG stock is down 22.6%.
TFI International and Nuvei were also among the top-performing TSX stocks yesterday, as they gained over 4% each.
On the flip side, shares of CGI, Teck Resources, George Weston, and Methanex fell at least 2.6% each, making them the bottom performers on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Based on their daily trade volume, TC Energy, Royal Bank of Canada, Suncor Energy, and Manulife Financial were the most active stocks on the exchange.
TSX today
Commodity prices across the board were showcasing strength early Thursday morning, which could help the main TSX index inch up at the open today.
While no major domestic economic releases are due, the U.S. monthly durable goods orders, pending home sales, and quarterly gross domestic product (GDP) growth data will remain on Canadian investors’ radar this morning.
As second-quarter corporate earnings season ramps up, several TSX-listed companies, including Winpak, Cenovus Energy, Teck Resources, Canadian Utilities, Atco, Tamarack Valley Energy, FirstService, Secure Energy, TMX Group, Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Baytex Energy, Eldorado Gold, Canfor, Advantage Energy, MEG Energy, and Precision Drilling, are expected to release their latest quarterly earnings reports on July 27.