* At 09:44 a.m. ET (13:44 GMT), the Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index was up 36.6 points, or 0.22%, at 16,538.21, extending gains to a third straight session.

* Bausch Health shares rose almost 11% after it said it would spin off its eye care unit, Bausch + Lomb, into a separate publicly-listed company, seven years after acquiring it for nearly $9 billion.

* Canada's healthcare index led gains, up 1.1%

* The energy sector climbed 0.9% as U.S. crude prices were up 1% a barrel, while Brent crude added 1.1%.

* The materials sector, which includes precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, added 0.4% as gold futures rose 1.1% to a new peak of $2,054.3 an ounce, while silver prices surged almost 5%.

* The largest percentage gainers on the TSX were Spin Master Corp, which jumped 22.5% after reporting a narrower-than-expected loss, and Pretium Resources, which rose 20.5% spurred by a rise in quarterly revenue.

* Cronos Group Inc Lightspeed POS Inc were the biggest decliners after they reported losses for the second quarter.

* The most heavily-traded shares by volume were Bombardier, down 2.3%; Enbridge Inc, up 0.5% and Manulife Financial Corp, up 3.8%.

* Bombardier's second-quarter was hit by higher costs in its train business and a more than 40% drop in business jet deliveries due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

* On the TSX, 119 issues were higher, while 95 issues declined for a 1.25-to-1 ratio favouring gainers, with 20.73 million shares traded.

* The TSX posted 14 new 52-week highs and no new lows.

* Across all Canadian issues there were 63 new 52-week highs and 5 new lows, with total volume of 49.41 million shares.

(Reporting by Susan Mathew in Bengaluru; editing by Uttaresh.V)