By Adriano Marchese


Toronto-listed stocks were trending lower in midday trading Thursday. In Alberta, energy producers have been resuming some operations as wildfires that have been spreading across the prairie provinces have eased. However, the hot and dry weather being forecast could make matters worse and could force oil and gas companies to shut-in production once again.

At midday, Canada's S&P/TSX Composite Index was down 0.55% at 20386.02 and the blue-chip S&P/TSX 60 fell by 0.46% to 1231.34.

Meanwhile, many Canadian sectors were posting declines in the session, with the largest logged by the materials sector, followed by process industries and energy. On the gainers' side, producer manufacturing saw the largest upward trend, followed by tech and commercial services.

Shares of CI Financial were more than 26% higher at 15.78 Canadian dollars ($11.80) after the Toronto-based investment management firm said it would sell a 20% stake in its U.S. wealth-management business for C$1.34 billion to a group of institutional investors.


Other market movers:

Shares of Canadian fertilizer company Nutrien were down 4.2% at C$81.11 after TRC Capital Investment said it has terminated its cash tender offer to purchase 1 million of its common shares.

Absolute Software shares in Toronto were 34% higher, reaching C$15.34 a share after the company agreed to be acquired by a California-based venture capital firm in a deal with an enterprise value of $870 million.

Canadian Tire reported a drop in first-quarter profit and revenue as the company faced lower consumer demand and higher costs in the quarter. Shares were down 3% at C$170.14.


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


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

05-11-23 1219ET