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After a strong month in October, the stock market in Canada was up only slightly in November, gaining 0.3%. The resource sector continued to be the biggest drag on our market, with the gold stocks taking the Basic Materials sector down by 5.7% and the Energy sector falling 1.1%. Other losing sectors included the Utilities, which lost 2.9%, and the Consumer Staples, which fell 1.7% on weakness in the grocery stocks. On the plus side, the industrials sector lead the advance, gaining 5.1% in November as the rail stocks continued to move higher. Financials also gained on optimism over bank earnings and higher valuations for life insurance and investment management stocks. The Financial Services sector gained 2.5%. The Information Technology sector was helped to a 3.5% monthly advance on gains by Open Text and CGI Group. The attribution of the gains/losses in the Canadian market in November were right in line with where they’ve been for most of this year. The Financial Services sector has accounted for 75% of the gains in the overall market this year, an impressive number given that the sector only represents about 35% of the overall index. The Basic Materials sector, on the other hand, has been responsible for over 700 points of downside for the TSX index this year. In other words, without the Basic Materials sector, the TSX would be up over 16% in 2013, versus its actual year-to-date gain of 10.8%!
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