The Financial Post reports in its Friday edition that after posting the weakest annual profit growth since 2016, Canada's banks now must prove to investors that it is still worth buying their shares. A Bloomberg dispatch to the Post says that half of the country's Big Six banks -- Royal Bank of Canada, TD and CIBC -- missed expectations for the fiscal fourth quarter. Concerns about weak economic growth, slower domestic lending, higher loan losses and eroding net interest margins have weighed on banks' earnings and investors' minds. The S&P/TSX Commercial Banks Index has lagged a broader Canadian market measure since last year, with shares of the nation's eight largest lenders gaining a mere 13 per cent since the end of 2018. That performance lags the S&P/TSX Composite Index's climb of 25 per cent. "People are concerned about the economic cycle and banks are cyclical stocks," Steve Belisle at Manulife Investment told the Post. Investors "don't want to introduce too much cyclicality in their portfolio, and I think that's what has been reflected in the performance of the stocks," he added. RBC, the largest Canadian lender, kicks off the first-quarter reporting season today for the three months ended Jan. 31.