The Canadian stock market rollercoaster continued on Friday, as investors focused on the Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell’s remarks about the economy and inflation. The S&P/TSX Composite Index rose 60 points, or 0.3%, for the day to settle at 19,836, ending the week with minor gains of just 17 points.
Even as mining and bank sectors witnessed weakness, a recovery in oil and gas prices drove energy stocks higher. Besides that, healthcare, consumer noncyclical, and industrial stocks also traded positively in the last session.
Top TSX Composite movers and active stocks
Shares of BlackBerry (TSX:BB) popped 17.4% on Friday, taking their weekly gains to more than 19%. This sharp rally in BB stock came after a Bloomberg report claimed that Veritas Capital, a New York-headquartered private equity company, is considering acquiring BlackBerry.
While BlackBerry didn’t comment on potential acquisition talks, the report still boosted investors’ confidence,e as it came a few months after the Waterloo-based tech firm started the process of reviewing its portfolio and business configuration in May. After this rally, BB stock now trades with solid 60.5% year-to-date gains at $7.08 per share.
NorthWest Healthcare Properties REIT, Ballard Power Systems, and Telus International were also among the top gainers on the Toronto Stock Exchange in the last session, as they inched up by at least 3.8% each.
In contrast, B2Gold and NovaGold Resources were the worst-performing TSX stocks for the day, plunging by at least 2.5% each.
Based on their daily trade volume, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Suncor Energy, Cenovus Energy, and BlackBerry were the most heavily traded stocks on the exchange.
TSX today
Most commodity prices were going sideways early Monday morning, pointing to a flat open for the resource-heavy main TSX benchmark today. While no major domestic economic releases are due today, TSX investors may want to remain cautious before the release of monthly consumer confidence and job openings data from the United States scheduled for Tuesday.
After the announcement of Royal Bank of Canada’s and TD Bank’s results last week, the Canadian bank earnings season will pick up pace this week, with Bank of Nova Scotia and Bank of Montreal expected to release their latest quarterly results tomorrow before the market opening bell.
