After falling nearly 2% over the previous two sessions, Canadian stocks turned slightly positive on Tuesday, as firm metals prices and cooler-than-expected U.S. wholesale inflation data sparked a relief rally. The S&P/TSX Composite Index ended the session with a 52-point, or 0.2%, gain at 24,589.
Despite weakness in some key sectors like consumer noncyclicals and utilities, handsome gains in shares of mining, consumer discretionary, and financial companies pushed the TSX benchmark higher.
Top TSX Composite movers and active stocks
Fortuna Mining, TerraVest Industries, SilverCrest Metals, and MAG Silver were the top-performing TSX stocks for the day, with each climbing by at least 6.4%.
In contrast, Cogeco Communications (TSX:CCA) dived by about 6% to $63.43 per share, making it the session’s worst-performing TSX stock. This selloff in CCA stock came a day after the Montréal-based telecommunications firm announced its first-quarter financial results for fiscal 2025, which ended in November 2024. During the quarter, its revenue fell 1.2% year over year to $738.7 million due to a 2.6% drop in its U.S. telecom revenue.
Nevertheless, better margins and gains from a sale and leaseback transaction drove Cogeco’s adjusted quarterly earnings up by 18.4% from a year ago to $2.38 per share, beating Bay Street’s expectations of $2.04 per share. Despite this earnings beat, negative factors such as subscriber losses in entry-level services and poor performance of the company’s U.S. segment seemingly hurt investors’ sentiments.
Innergex Renewable Energy and Brookfield Renewable Partners were also among the bottom performers on the Toronto Stock Exchange as they slid by over 3% each.
Based on their daily trade volume, Suncor Energy, TD Bank, Enbridge, TC Energy, and BCE were the five most active stocks on the exchange.
TSX today
Commodity prices were largely mixed in early morning trading on Wednesday, pointing to a muted opening for the main TSX index today.
While no major domestic economic releases are due, Canadian investors will closely monitor the important monthly consumer inflation and weekly crude oil stockpile data from the United States this morning. The incoming inflation data could provide further clues about the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy direction and add to the market volatility, with tech and rate-sensitive sectors likely to see the most movement.