One of the most important principles of sound investment management is staying on top of what’s happening in the world and how those events affect finances. Conditions change quickly, and keeping up-to-date on developments and trends can be challenging. The team of experts producing IWB have been advising Canadian investors for over 25 years.

Edited and Published by Gordon Pape. Associate Editor: Richard Croft

With Gavin Graham, Ryan Irvine, Glenn Rogers, Shawn Allen, Rudy Luukko, & David Kitai.

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Recent Updates

Cosciens Pharma (TSX: CSCI)

Cosciens Biopharma is a Toronto-headquartered company with operations mostly in Edmonton through its Ceapro subsidiary. Former Ceapro shareholders had their shares consolidated and converted to Cosciens shares when Ceapro went through a merger of equals with American company Aeterna Zentaris, Inc. in 2024. This turned out be a disaster as Aeterna Zentaris has turned out to be approximately worthless after it allowed its German subsidiary to go bankrupt.

Coscien’s remaining main operation, Ceapro Inc., is a small Edmonton-based biotechnology company. For many years it has produced beta glucan and avenanthramides, which it extracts from oats. These products are used as ingredients in the cosmetics industry, including in some popular brand-name anti-aging and skin conditioner creams.


iShares S&P/TSX Small Cap Index Fund (TSX: XCS)

Canadian small cap stocks have been performing well, and this fund was ahead 32.36% for the year to Sept. 30. For the 10 years to that date, the average annual compound rate of return was 10.71%.

The fund holds 236 positions. Almost one-third is invested in the materials sector, especially copper and gold miners. Another 23% is in energy, which has been the hottest sector on the TSX since the start of the Iran war. Other strong holdings include Russel Metals and Bird Construction, both of which have seen their price more than double this year.

The fund’s top holdings include Athabasca Oil, whose stock jumped recently after it announced it is being taken over by Cenovus Energy, Ero Copper, Kinaxis Inc., Russel Metals, and Enerflex. No position represents over 2% of total assets.


Canadian Natural Resources (TSX, NYSE: CNQ)

Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ) owns well-diversified production facilities in Western Canada, the UK North Sea, and offshore Africa.


Suncor Energy (TSX, NYSE: SU)

Suncor is one of the leading Canadian integrated oil-and-gas companies, with production from the oil sands in Alberta. It also has extensive overseas operations it acquired when it bought Petro-Canada a decade ago, as well as refineries in the US and Canada and over 1,800 Petro-Canada gas stations in Canada.


Chevron Corp (NYSE: CVX)

Chevron was formed by the merger of Chevron and Texaco in the 1980s. It is the second largest private oil and gas company in the US and the third largest by market capitalization in the world after ExxonMobil and Saudi giant Aramco.