The Globe and Mail attempts to identify profitable and undervalued Canadian large caps in its Tuesday, Jan. 10, edition. The Globe's Craig McGee writes in the Number Cruncher column that it may come as a surprise to many, but 2016 was the best year for the Canadian equity market since 2009. The S&P/TSX composite total return index posted a return of 21.1 per cent for the year. Materials and energy sectors led the way last year with returns of 41.2 per cent and 35.5 per cent. Health care was the only sector in negative territory, generating a loss of 78.5 per cent following the collapse of Valeant Pharmaceuticals. Mr. McGee looked for the best mix of forward earnings yield (which is the inverse of the price-to-earnings ratio) and return on equity. Qualifying companies needed to have positive estimated earnings for the upcoming year. The real estate sector was excluded due to differences in valuation methods. Mr. McGee's recommended undervalued large-cap stocks are Magna International, Quebecor, Constellation Software, CI Financial, Dollarama, Canadian Pacific Railway, Teck Resources, Atco and Keyera.