FX.co ★ TSX Recovers From Early Losses, Ends Session Marginally Up

On Thursday, despite an initially negative market and steep morning losses, the Canadian market slowly recovered and entered the green by mid afternoon. The rise was largely driven by robust purchases in the materials stock sector, allowing the market to conclude this session with slight gains.

In the early transactions, the leading S&P/TSX Composite Index fell approximately 235 points to 21,638.37, but eventually rallied to 21,920.15, finalizing at 21,885.38 — a marginal enhancement of 11.66 points or 0.05%.

The market mood was largely negative due to prevailing concerns about the future trajectory of interest rates. Despite this, the Materials Capped Index saw a significant rise of about 2.25%. Stocks such as Teck Resources (TECK.B.TO), MAG Silver Corp (MAG.TO) and Capstone Mining Corp (CS.TO) noted impressive gains of around 8.7%, 7% and 6.4%, respectively.

Other noteworthy gainers included New Gold Inc (NGD.TO), Ivanhoe Mines (IVN.TO), Hudbay Minerals (HBM.TO), K92 Mining Inc (KNT.TO), OceanaGold Corp (OGC.TO), Silvercrest Metals (SIL.TO) and Barrick Gold Corp (ABX.TO), which all garnered gains ranging from 3 to 5.1%.

Precision Drilling Corporation (PD.TO) saw an uplift of around 1.2%, following the release of its Q1 report which showed net profits reaching $37 million, or $2.53 per share. This was lower than the $96 million, or $7.02/share from Q1 of 2023.

Other energy stock gains include Advantage Oil & Gas (AAV.TO), rising nearly 3.5% after declaring a Q1 net income of $23.2 million or $0.14 per share. Africa Oil Corp (AOI.TO) and Arc Resources (ARX.TO) also notable gainers, rising by 3.4% and 2.3%, respectively. Athabasca Oil Corp (ATH.TO), Tourmaline Oil Corp (TOU.TO), Baytex Energy (BTE.TO) and Crescent Point Energy (CPG.TO) also reported significant gains.

Among the other successful performers during this session were stocks such as Bombardier Inc (BBD.A.TO), Cargojet (CJT.TO), Sprott Inc (SII.TO), Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM.TO), Franco-Nevada Corporation (FNV.TO) and Agnico Eagle Mines (AEM.TO).

However, not all companies saw rises. Mullen Group (MTL.TO) fell by 9% following a Q1 report of a net income of $22.2 million, down from the $31.7 million from the same quarter last year. Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) dropped 2.7%, and FirstService Corp (FSV.TO), Celestica Inc (CLS.TO), CGI Inc (GIB.A.TO), Colliers International (CIGI.TO), Kinaxis Inc (KXS.TO), Molson Coors Canada Inc (TPX.B.TO) and Constellation Software (CSU.TO) also concluded the session with notable declines.

The session concluded with the release of data from Statistics Canada showing that the average weekly earnings of Canadian non-farm payroll employees had risen by 4.5% year-on-year to $1,232 in February.