By Adriano Marchese


Canadian stocks were trading higher Wednesday at midday as investors await a U.S. Federal Reserve announcement to provide some clarity on policy south of the border. Meanwhile, Bank of Canada said it would hold its interest rate steady at 0.25%, but cautioned that rate increases are on the horizon to deal with high inflation and a Canadian economy running hot. Shares in Brookfield Renewable Partners LP rose on the news that it is expanding its footprint in the U.S. through the acquisition of Urban Grid and its pipeline of projects for $650 million.

At midday, Canada's S&P/TSX Composite Index was up 1.12% at 20820.90. The blue-chip S&P/TSX 60 rose 1.09% to 1265.78.

Brookfield Renewable Partners LP shares rose 2.9% to C$41.14 after it said this new pipeline of projects amounts to around 13,000 megawatts of utility-scale solar and 7,000 megawatts of energy storage capacity which triple Brookfield's U.S. development pipeline to around 31,000 megawatts of capacity.


Other market movers:

Shares in Enbridge Inc. rose 1.5% to C$52.52 after it said it will transport and store captured carbon dioxide produced by Lehigh Cement at its Edmonton plant. From this plant, Lehigh plans to capture around 780,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide every year.

Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. shares were 1.4% higher at C$0.75 after the company said it made proceeds of 31.5 million Canadian dollars, the equivalent of $25 million, from its first sale of diamonds in 2022.


Write to Adriano Marchese at adriano.marchese@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

01-26-22 1216ET