By Adriano Marchese


Canadian equities were slightly higher with sector performance in the session evenly split.

Losses in energy, financials and distribution services were the main laggards on Friday, offset by gains in consumer services, tech and materials stocks.

On the housing front, new-house prices in Canada edged 0.1% lower in December, faltering to end a year in which the property market started to show signs of bouncing back.

An advance estimate points to further strength in Canadian factory trade, which rose 0.6% in December, thanks to sales of petroleum products and food.

Canada's S&P/TSX Composite Index rose 0.2% to 25471.26 and the blue-chip S&P/TSX 60 edged forward by 0.1% to 1528.48.

Shares of Global Atomic fell by nearly 27% to 69 Canadian cents (48 cents) after the uranium company said it increased its private placement offering to raise C$36 million, C$6 million more over its previous target.


Other market movers:


Shares of Magna International got a boost of 2% to C$58.87 after RBC reported that the car-parts manufacturer should benefit from improving production and sales backdrop in 2025. The rosier outlook prompted RBC analysts to upgrade the stock to outperform from sector perform.


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


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

01-24-25 1237ET