The TSX is the best-performing major North American market so far this year. The composite is up nearly 9 per cent in 2016, as rising commodity prices helped lift the oil and materials-heavy exchange.

TSX: +8.11%

Dow Industrials: + 2.90%

S&P 500: +2.69%

Nasdaq: -3.29%

Unsurprisingly, the Materials sector was the top performer to start the year, up more than 50 per cent as global uncertainty helped drive investors into safe-haven assets, including gold. The recovery in oil prices drove the Energy sector more than 17 per cent higher, and the low rate environment helped spur demand for higher-yielding Utilities,  up nearly 15% since New Year’s.

Top Performing TSX Sectors

Materials: +50.8%

Energy: 17.2%

Utilities: 14.7%

Stocks tied to the space are the biggest gainers of 2016. First Majestic has seen its stock price nearly triple due to the company’s heavy exposure to silver prices. Base metal play Teck Resources has more than doubled, as has Guyana Goldfields as metal prices have bounced back. Endeavour Mining and Barrick Gold round out the top five.

Top Performing TSX Stocks:

First Majestic Silver (FR TSX): +289.1%

Teck Resources (TCKb.TO): +218.5%

Guyana Goldfields (GUY.TO): 200.7%

Endeavour Mining (EDV.TO): 187.4%

IAMGold (IMG.TO): +171.6%

Only three TSX sectors are in negative territory this year, with Consumer Discretionary and Info Tech posting modest declines. The big loser at mid-year is the Health Care index, down a whopping 72 per cent.

Worst Performing TSX Sectors

Health Care: -72.4%

Info Tech: -6.1%

Consumer Discretionary: -1.1%

The weakness in Health Care is due almost entirely to one stock: Valeant Pharmaceuticals. The embattled drugmaker is down more than 80 per cent as freshly-installed CEO Joseph Papa works to trim the company’s debt and get operations back on track. The second worst-performer has been fellow pharmaceutical firm Concordia, while Linamar, Canfor and BlackBerry round out the laggards of 2016.

Worst Performing TSX Stocks:

Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX.TO): -81.5%

Concordia International (CXR.TO): -50.8%

Linamar (LNR.TO): -38.4%

Canfor Corp (CFP.TO): -35.4%

BlackBerry (BB.TO): -32.5%