The S&P/Toronto Stock Exchange Composite Index has eked out a 2.2 per cent gain so far this year, directly in line with the Dow Jones Industrial Average. But it has vastly underperformed the S&P 500, which is up 15 per cent, thanks to a surge in its biggest market sector — information technology — that’s been fueled by an AI investing bonanza.
Tech companies account for just 7.7 per cent of the S&P/TSX Composite, a weighting that is smaller than financials, energy, industrials and materials. Still, it has topped the leader board so far this year in Toronto. “It’s easy to say Canada has kind of missed the boat on AI,” CIBC Capital Markets Managing Director Ian de Verteuil said by phone, pointing to the powerhouse of a tech market in the US that has it surging ahead of virtually every other country. “I don’t think there’s any other place in the world that are really good at competing.”