The Canadian stock market continued to trade on a bearish note for the eighth consecutive session, as concerns about a potential recession, growing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, and mixed corporate results kept investors on their toes. The S&P/TSX Composite Index fell 138 points, or 0.7%, on Friday to settle at 18,737, registering its longest losing streak since January 2016.
Although an intraday rally in metals prices across the board drove the shares of mining companies higher, heavy losses in most other key sectors, including healthcare, financials, and consumer cyclicals, drove the TSX benchmark to its lowest closing level in more than a year.
Top TSX Composite movers and active stocks
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, Granite REIT, Magna International, and Ballard Power Systems were the worst-performing TSX stocks in the last session as they slipped by over 3% each.
On the positive side, shares of Eldorado Gold (TSX:ELD) jumped by more than 9% to $14.95 per share, making it the top-performing TSX stock for the day. This rally in ELD stock came a day after the Vancouver-headquartered gold and base metals mining firm announced its latest quarterly results.
Eldorado’s total revenue rose 12.7% year over year to US$245.3 million in the September quarter. Higher revenue and lower production costs helped the company post US$0.17 per share in adjusted quarterly earnings, crushing Street analysts’ estimate of US$0.06 per share. After the recent rally, ELD stock is now up 32.4% on a year-to-date basis.
Dye & Durham and K92 Mining were also among the top gainers on the Toronto Stock Exchange, as they inched up by at least 4.8% each.
Based on their daily trade volume, Royal Bank of Canada, Baytex Energy, Suncor Energy, and Toronto-Dominion Bank were the most active stocks on the exchange.
TSX today
Commodity prices, especially crude oil, natural gas, and gold, were trading on a weak note early Monday morning, pointing to a slightly lower open for the resource-heavy main TSX index today. On the economic events front, Canadian investors may want to keep a close eye on the Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem’s comments about the economy before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance late in the afternoon.
As the third-quarter corporate earnings season continues in full swing, several TSX-listed companies, including Topaz Energy, Toromont Industries, Dye & Durham, TMX Group, Air Canada, and Gibson Energy, are likely to announce their latest quarterly results on October 30.