Canadian stocks bounced back sharply on Wednesday, as an intraday decline in the U.S. and Canada treasury bond yields drove a spectacular rally in tech stocks. The S&P/TSX Composite Index inched up by 189 points, or 1%, yesterday to settle at 19,880, marking its best single-day performance in more than five weeks.
Gold, silver, and copper prices rallied by around 0.9%, 3.9%, and 1.4%, respectively, pushing metal and mining stocks higher in the last session. Besides rallies in tech and mining shares, solid gains in other key market sectors, including real estate and utilities, also helped the TSX benchmark advance.
Top TSX Composite movers and active stocks
Wesdome Gold Mines, Equinox Gold, IAMGOLD, and Centerra Gold were the top-performing TSX stocks yesterday, as they gained at least 5.7% each.
Open Text (TSX:OTEX) rose 2.3% to $52.43 per share, extending its week-to-date gains to 4.8%. This optimism in OTEX stock was seen after the Waterloo-headquartered tech company announced the acquisition of KineMatik, an Ireland-based automated business process solutions provider.
While this acquisition is likely to expand its product offerings and customer base, Open Text doesn’t expect the KineMatik acquisition to have a major impact on its financial results. On a year-to-date basis, OTEX stock is now up 30.7%.
In contrast, Birchcliff Energy, Tamarack Valley Energy, Vermilion Energy, and ARC Resources were among the bottom performers on the Toronto Stock Exchange, as they slipped by at least 2.6% each in the last session.
Based on their daily trade volume, Manulife Financial, Great-West Lifeco, Canadian Natural Resources, Suncor Energy, and Enbridge were the exchange’s five most heavily traded stocks.
TSX today
Commodity prices were largely mixed early Thursday morning, which could keep the resource-heavy main TSX index flat at the open today. While no major domestic economic releases are due, Canadian investors may want to closely monitor the monthly durable goods orders and weekly jobless claims data from the United States this morning.
Besides that, Canadian bank earnings will remain on TSX investors’ radar today, as Royal Bank of Canada and Toronto-Dominion Bank are set to announce their latest quarterly results on August 24.