The Globe and Mail attempts to identify low beta stocks that have exceeded analyst expectations in its Thursday, Sept. 24, edition. The Globe's Ian Tam writes in the Number Cruncher column that he focused on stocks that have shown less sensitivity to overall market movements. Mr. Tam explains that a stock's beta is its sensitivity to an underlying index (in this case, the S&P/TSX composite). High beta stocks tend to rise or fall more than the index in trending markets, while lower beta stocks tend to rise or fall less than the index in trending markets. Mr. Tam considered the five-year historical beta. He looked for recent positive earnings surprises (the difference between the consensus estimate just prior to a company's quarterly report, and the actual reported figure). Qualifying companies had to have a market cap of at least $900-million. Mr. Tam's qualifying stocks are Dollarama, Aimia, Brookfield Asset Management, Sun Life Financial, EnerCare and Enbridge.