Stocks in the technology, consumer staples and financial services sectors in Canada outperformed in the month of July, helping the Russell Canada Index post returns of more than 7% for the month, Russell Investment Group announced on Monday.

The Russell Canada Index – a benchmark tracking the Canadian equity market – posted a return of 7.3% for the month of July, bouncing back from the -10.1% return for the second quarter of 2010.

Despite this growth, the Canadian benchmark underperformed the 8.1% return posted by the Russell Global ex-Canada Index, which is comprised of equities in more than 60 countries around the world.

Technology and consumer staples were the top performing sectors in Canada, posting returns of 12.6% and 11.6%, respectively, in July. Other strong performers included financial services, up 9.9%, and producer durables, up 9.2%.

The weakest Canadian sector was materials and processing, with returns of just 2.3%.

In contrast, the top performing sectors outside of Canada were consumer discretionary, with returns of 10.7%, consumer staples, at 9.9%, and energy, at 9.1%. Utilities represented the weakest sector, with returns of 1.2%.

Both the Canadian and ex-Canadian indexes showed large cap stocks outperforming small caps for the month of July. Large caps in Canada posted returns of 7.4% in July, compared to 7.1% for small caps.

IE