By Adriano Marchese
Stocks in Toronto were moderately higher in midday trading Thursday after briefly dipping into red territory earlier in the morning. In the session, energy and tech were the main leading sectors, while retail trade was the outsized laggard. The sector was largely down as shares of women's fashion brand Aritzia Inc. fell after reporting higher costs and a larger inventory in its third quarter.
At midday, Canada's S&P/TSX Composite Index inched up 0.39% to 20103.20, and the blue-chip S&P/TSX 60 was 0.39% higher at 1209.68.
Shares of Aritzia Inc. were trading 8.8% lower at C$46.69 after it said it had 508.4 million Canadian dollars ($378.7 million) worth of inventory in its fiscal third quarter, up from C$176.9 million a year earlier. Warehousing for the new inventory drove up costs, eating into its gross profit margin, which fell to 43.3% from 46.4%, but Aritzia said it was comfortable with these levels and it doesn't expect to play with deeper-than-usual discounts to sell it.
Other market movers:
Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. shares were down 5.7% at C$9.38 after it announced it will lower its dividend by 40% and that it intends to sell up to $1 billion in assets to fund growth and pay down debt.
Rock Tech Lithium Inc. shares jumped nearly 17% to C$2.77 after the company said it received permission to begin construction early on its lithium converter facility in Germany.
Write to Adriano Marchese at adriano.marchese@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
01-12-23 1213ET
