The Canadian stock market trended upward for the third consecutive session on Tuesday, as much stronger-than-expected U.S. consumer confidence numbers boosted investors’ confidence, shaking off concerns about the banking sector. With this, the S&P/TSX Composite Index witnessed a minor 33-point gains to settle at 19,658, trimming its month-to-date losses to 2.8%.
Although shares of healthcare, real estate, and technology companies continued to slip in the last session, healthy gains in other key stock market sectors like mining, consumer non-cyclicals, and energy pushed the TSX index up.
Top TSX Composite movers and active stocks
Shares of goeasy (TSX:GSY) tanked by 9.4% yesterday to $98.25 per share after it provided updates on the Federal budget and a new funding capacity. The Mississauga-based nonprime leasing and lending services provider told investors that the federal government’s recently announced move to reduce the maximum allowable rate of interest could “eliminate access to credit for millions of borrowers.”
goeasy is currently evaluating the possible impact of this reduction on its business and might revise its previously given commercial forecast in the coming months. On a year-to-date basis, GSY stock now trades with 7.7% losses.
Cronos Group, Canopy Growth, Lightspeed Commerce, and Tilray Brands were also among the worst-performing TSX stocks for the day, as they fell at least 4.2% each.
On the flip side, Spartan Delta (TSX:SDE) jumped 7.2% to $14.78 per share after announcing a purchase and sale agreement with its home market peer Crescent Point Energy. According to the agreement, Crescent Point intends to acquire Spartan Delta’s Gold Creek and Karr Montney assets in Alberta in a deal worth $1.7 billion. After this transaction, Spartan expects to focus mainly on developing its sustainable Deep Basin assets and enhancing shareholder value. This rally trimmed SDE stock’s year-to-date losses to 1.1%.
Shares of Lundin Mining and Equinox Gold were also among the top performers on the Toronto Stock Exchange on March 28, as they inched up by more than 6% each.
Based on their daily trade volume, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Crescent Point Energy, Barrick Gold, and TD Bank were the most active Canadian stocks.
TSX today
After staging a recovery in the last session, metals prices across the board turned negative again on Wednesday, which could drive the TSX mining stocks downward at the open today. While no important domestic economic releases are due, Canadian investors may want to closely monitor the monthly pending home sales and weekly crude oil stockpiles data from the United States this morning.
On the corporate events side, large TSX-listed companies Dollarama and Constellation Software are expected to release their latest quarterly results on March 29.
