Canadian equities played a role in strengthening the resiliency of institutional investors’ portfolios amid a volatile 2025, says Garey Aitken, managing director and head of Canadian equities at Franklin Templeton’s ClearBridge Investments.
Indeed, Canadian equities provided a welcome surprised with overperformance, a consistent reason for positive results in pension index reports throughout the year. “Not only has it been good but it’s been good relative to the U.S. market, [which is] the real global equity juggernaut,” says Aitken.
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Canadian markets faced uncertainty at the end of last year following Donald Trump’s election as U.S. president and his increasing rhetoric of strengthening tariff policy, leading to a new icy dynamic between the two countries.
“We took our medicine first in terms of the ultimate risk [fear] but we’ve settled in. . . . To the extent a lot of our exports are [Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement] compliant, effectively we’re at the same place we were prior to this heating up.”
At the end of last month, Canadian total returns were roughly 25 per cent, he says. At the end of the third quarter of 2025, 11 sectors reached all-time highs with metals and mining taking the leading spot.
“It’s really been a year where how much or how little gold you had is really going to influence what your numbers look like.”
RBC Investor Services’ third-quarter pension index indicated Canadian equites yielded a 9.5 per cent return and had produced a 21.5 per cent returs on a year-to-date basis, with the materials category giving a 79.3 per cent return year-to-date. Indeed, the gold sector proved its value to investors’ portfolios.
“Gains were especially strong among gold producers, as investors continued to look for stability and diversification through traditional safe-haven assets,” Isabelle Tremblay, director of client solutions and asset owner segment lead at RBCIS, said in a statement.
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