Canadian Market Remains Weak After Paring Early Gains

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market is down in negative territory Wednesday afternoon with investors digesting some quarterly earnings updates, including from Royal Bank of Canada and the National Bank of Canada, and Canadian manufacturing and services sector activity data.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index, which climbed to 25,743.53 after opening modestly higher at 25,666.43, was down 59.97 points or 0.24% at 25,575.76 a little while ago.

Data from S&P Global showed that the S&P Global Canada Composite PMI rose to 51.5 in November 2024, up from 50.7 in October, marking the fastest private sector growth since May 2022 and a second consecutive month of expansion.

The S&P Global Canada Services PMI rose to 51.2 in November 2024, the highest since April 2023, up from 50.4 in the prior month. Although the services sector posted a second month of growth, the expansion remained modest overall with new business largely unchanged since October.

A report from Statistics Canada said productivity in Canada decreased to 101.37 points in the third quarter of 2024 from 101.77 points in the second quarter of 2024.

Energy and consumer discretionary stocks are the major losers, and technology stocks are turning in a good performance, while shares from the rest of the sectors are turning in a mixed performance.

Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO) reported net income of $16.2 billion for the year ended October 31, 2024, up $1.6 billion or 11% from the prior year. The stock is up by about 0.5%.

National Bank of Canada (NA.TO) is down 3.4% after reporting adjusted profit of C$928 million ($659.93 million), or C$2.58 per share, for the three months ended Oct. 31, from C$850 million, or C$2.39 per share, a year earlier.

Dollarama Inc (DOL.TO) is down nearly 6%. The company announced that its net earnings increased by 5.6% to $275.8 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2025, compared to $261.1 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2024, reflecting an increase in diluted net earnings per common share of 6.5% to $0.98 per diluted common share, in the third quarter of fiscal 2025.