Toronto Index Gets a Makeover on Shopify Surge and Oil’s Decline

Doug Alexander

08 May 2020, 08:53 AM IST

(Bloomberg) -- Shopify Inc. isn’t the only one advancing up the ranks of Canada’s most valuable companies. Changes in the economy have given the country’s benchmark stock index a makeover at the top.

Shopify briefly eclipsed Royal Bank of Canada on Wednesday as the most valuable Canadian firm, one of the few to have surpassed the country’s largest lender in recent years. Royal Bank reclaimed top spot on Thursday, but Shopify’s advance is still a big achievement for an e-commerce firm that became public just five years ago.

Three other companies -- Barrick Gold Corp., Brookfield Asset Management Inc. and pipeline operator TC Energy Corp. -- have nosed into the top 10 of the 229-member S&P/TSX Composite Index in the past five years.

Though the list has long been dominated by banks, there’s no longer a single oil producer in the top 10. Here it is as of Wednesday’s close:

Rank	Company	Market Value
1.	Shopify Inc.	C$121.3 billion
2.	Royal Bank of Canada	C$120.5 billion
3.	Toronto-Dominion Bank	C$102.3 billion
4.	Enbridge Inc.	C$87.6 billion
5.	Canadian National Railway Co.	C$81.0 billion
6.	Brookfield Asset Management Inc.	C$72.0 billion
7.	Barrick Gold Corp.	C$66.7 billion
8.	Bank of Nova Scotia	C$64.1 billion
9.	TC Energy Corp.	C$62.8 billion
10.	BCE Inc.	C$51.5 billion

And here’s what Canada’s benchmark stock index looked like on May 6, 2015:

1.	Royal Bank of Canada	C$114.1 billion
2.	Toronto-Dominion Bank	C$102.2 billion
3.	Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc.	C$88.7 billion
4.	Bank of Nova Scotia	C$79.7 billion
5.	Canadian National Railway Co.	C$62.6 billion
6.	Suncor Energy Inc.	C$53.2 billion
7.	Enbridge Inc.	C$52.2 billion
8.	Bank of Montreal	C$49.9 billion
9.	BCE Inc.	C$44.8 billion
10.	Manulife Financial Corp.	C$44.4 billion