The Canadian stock market today proved once more the unpredictability of the stock market – that one cannot look at its movement within thirty minutes and predict with certainty how it will end.

The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index opened lower. Minutes later, it began to rise until it gained over 160 points within an hour of the opening of the market. Then it began to fall until it went below the opening figure within the next three hours of trading. In effect, if plotted on a graph, the morning trading would look like a pyramid.

The early trading fall of the stock market was attributed to fears about interest rates hike and the uncertainty caused by the resignation of Liz Truss as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Truss, who replaced Boris Johnson, spent only six weeks in office.

After the fall of the first five minutes of trading, the index began to rise in the early morning trading, buoyed by heavy gains in energy and mining firms. The index, which closed the previous day at 18,674.40, reached a high of 18,838.79 within its first hour of trading.

At 10:36 a.m. ET, the index stood at 18,804.67, with a gain of 130.27 points, or 0.7 per cent. As the general index rose, the indexes of most of the sectors also rallied. The energy sector led the list of gainers in reaction to rising in crude oil prices due to lower supplies and news that China could reduce the duration of quarantine for inbound visitors. Only the industrials sector experienced a loss, shedding 0.7 per cent.

However, the honeymoon soon ended as the index continued to fall all morning and into the afternoon. At 01:30 p.m. ET, the TSX index had fallen to 18,613.57, with a loss of 60.83, or 0.33 per cent.

The top three best-performing stocks then were Shopify Inc., which was trading at C$41.18 with a gain of 5.48 per cent; First Majestic Silver Corp. trading at $10.75 with a gain of 4.88 per cent; and First Quantum Minerals Ltd., trading at $23.81, with a gain of 3.52 per cent. Conversely, the three least-performing stocks were Mullen Group Ltd., which was trading at $13.46, with a loss of 8.25 per cent; Dye & Durham Ltd., trading at $15.92 with a loss of 5.91 per cent; and Winpak Ltd., trading at $43.35, with a loss of 5.76 per cent.

At the same 1.30 p.m. ET, the S&P 500 was down 16.72 points, or 0.45 per cent, at 3,678.44.

The DOW was also down 27.53 points, or 0.09 per cent, at 30,396.28.

Likewise, NASDAQ was down 22.4 points, or 0.21 per cent, at 10,658.09.

However, the Canadian dollar firmed up against the American dollar. One loonie was exchanging at $0.7269, with a gain of $0.0004, or 0.0619 per cent.

Crude oil also experienced a gain, trading at US$86.45 per barrel, with a gain of $0.90, or 1.05 per cent.

Gold futures also rose, selling at US$1,640.60 per ounce, with a gain of $6.40, or 0.39 per cent.

By the close of the day’s trading at 4.00 p.m., the Canadian stock market could not recover from that reversal of fortune that started in the morning. It closed at 18,579.29, with a loss of 95.11 points, or 0.51 per cent.

With that, the stock market recorded a loss of 0.18 per cent in the last five days and 2.23 per cent in the past one month.

Market movers

LexaGene (LXG) signed a statement of work with a major biopharma company.

Hillcrest Energy (HEAT) signed an MOU with a global tier-1 automotive supplier. The parties will integrate an optimized version of Hillcrest’s 250 kW, 800 V inverter into a future 350 kW powertrain system. 

QYOU Media (QYOU) signed a binding term sheet to acquire a majority ownership stake in Maxamtech Digital Ventures.

Some capital raises for the week are Sylla Gold, Pegasus Resources and Basin Uranium.


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