Canadian Market Turning In Mixed Performance In Lackluster Trade

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market is turning in a mixed performance on Thursday with investors reacting to the latest batch of economic data from the U.S. and Canada, and looking ahead to the crucial U.S. non-farm payroll data due on Friday.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index is up 13.14 points or 0.06% at 20,287.35 a few minutes before noon.

Among the prominent gainers, Canadian Tire Corporation (CTC.TO) is up 6.25%, Tucows Inc (TC.TO) is gaining 4.5%, Celestica Inc (CLS.TO) is advancing 4.2%, North West Company (NWC.TO) is up 4.1% and Bombardier Inc (BBD.B.TO) is rising 4%.

Nutrien (NTR.TO), Fairfax Financial Holdings (FFH.TO), Stella-Jones (SJ.TO), CCL Industries (CCL.B.TO), goeasy (GSY.TO), FirstService Corporation (FSV.TO) and Colliers International (CIGI.TO) are up 1.2 to 2.6%.

Among the losers, Coveo Solutions (CVO.TO) is declining nearly 6%. Imperial Oil (IMO.TO), Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO), GFL Environmental (GFL.TO), Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO) and Cameco Corporation (CCO.TO) are down 1 to 2%.

Laurentian Bank of Canada (LB.TO) is down by about 1.4%. The bank reported net income of $181.1 million and diluted earnings per share of $3.89 for the year ended October 31, 2023, compared with $226.6 million and $4.95 for the year ended October 31, 2022.

For the fourth quarter of 2023, the bank reported net income of $30.6 million and diluted earnings per share were $0.67, compared with $55.7 million and $1.26 for the fourth quarter of 2022.

Intact Financial Corp. (IFC.TO) and its subsidiary Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Limited (RSA) announced that they have reached an agreement to sell RSA's UK direct Personal Lines operations, representing about £165 million of annual premiums, to Admiral Group plc. The stock is down by about 0.6%.

On the economic front, data from Statistics Canada showed the total value of building permits in Canada rose by 2.3% from a month earlier to $11.2 billion in October, reversing an upwardly revised 8.1% decline in September.