By Ketki Saxena
Investing.com -- The TMX Group (TSX:X) Ltd., which operates Canada's largest equity marketplace - the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) - reported a significant plunge of 54% in fresh equity issues on the exchnge for this year's first semester.
This considerable drop mirrors an overall downturn in public offerings, painting a bleak picture for Canadian markets. Over these six months, companies could only amass $5.4 billion through their listings on TSX, marking a stark contrast to $11.8 billion raised during the same timeframe last year.
In terms of initial public offerings (IPOs), merely $386 million was generated, showing a decline of 80% year over year. Out of all IPOs conducted within this period, only one managed to cross over the $100 million threshold – Lithium Royalty Corp.’s offering back in March as per data gathered by Bloomberg.
If we compare with major global indicators such as Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 that have been largely driven by tech stocks recently, Canada’s key equity benchmark - S&P/TSX Composite has underperformed with just a modest increase of 2.4% this year.