A day after posting its best single-day gains, the Canadian stock market turned bearish again on Tuesday as surprisingly hotter-than-expected domestic consumer inflation data reignited concerns about the Bank of Canada’s future monetary policy actions. The S&P/TSX Composite Index slipped by 60 points, or 0.3%, to settle at 21,788.
Despite a minor recovery in some tech stocks, heavy losses in other key market sectors, including consumer cyclicals, healthcare, and mining, pressured the TSX benchmark.
Top TSX Composite movers and active stocks
Capstone Copper (TSX:CS) tanked by more than 6% to $9.33 per share, trimming its year-to-date gains to around 45% and making it among the worst-performing TSX Composite components for the day. Notably, after the market closing bell on Tuesday, the Vancouver-headquartered copper miner announced achieving its first saleable copper concentrate production at the Mantoverde development project in Chile.
This marks a significant milestone for Capstone as its project gradually ramps up to full production, with nameplate operating rates expected by the third quarter. While yesterday’s bearish movement in CS stock could be attributed to a sharp intraday decline in copper prices, this production-related development could help its share prices trade positively in the next few sessions.
Ballard Power Systems, Africa Oil, and BRP were also among the day’s bottom performers on the Toronto Stock Exchange, slipping by at least 3.6% each.
On the flip side, Celestica, goeasy, and Richelieu Hardware climbed by at least 2.3% each, making them the session’s top-performing TSX stocks.
Based on their daily trade volume, TC Energy, Canadian Natural Resources, Manulife Financial, Baytex Energy, and Cenovus Energy were the most active stocks on the exchange.
TSX today
West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures prices were trading positively early Wednesday morning, pointing to a slightly higher opening for most TSX energy stocks today.
While no major domestic economic releases are due, Canadian investors may want to keep a close eye on the latest monthly new home sales and weekly crude oil stockpile data from the United States this morning.
On the corporate events side, TSX-listed companies NovaGold Resources and BlackBerry will announce their latest quarterly results after the market closing bell on June 26.