By Adriano Marchese


Toronto-listed stocks started the week off on the back foot, with indexes sharply lower on Monday mid-trading, pushing the Canadian benchmark indexes deeper into negative territory on the year.

The S&P Global Canada manufacturing purchasing managers index fell further in September, reaching 47.5 from 48.0 a month earlier. The slip suggests a continued contraction as the metric falls further below the 50 threshold.

Canada's S&P/TSX Composite Index was down 1.47%, to 19253.07, and the blue-chip S&P/TSX 60 fell by 1.43%, to 1155.82. Most sectors were trading lower in the session, led primarily by health services, materials and utilities. Only consumer durable shares posted gains so far in the session.

Laurentian Bank of Canada's shares fell by 4.6%, to 28.89 Canadian dollars (US$21.31), after Chief Executive Rania Llewellyn and its chair, Michael Mueller, left in the wake of a network outage last week that disrupted online banking services.


Other market movers:

Shares of HealWell AI, formerly known as MCI Onehealth Technologies, climbed nearly 35%, to C$0.74, after the company said its deal with WELL Health Technologies closed, which allowed them to address liquidity and balance sheet issues.

Global Atomic has finalized a letter of intent for the sale of uranium from its Dasa project in Niger, the third such deal to bring contacted volumes to almost 1.5 million pounds a year over the initial five years of operation. Shares were down 6.6%, to C$2.13.

LXRandCo warned that it could face liquidity issues in the fourth quarter as lower consumer-spending trends weigh on revenue. At midday, shares were flat, at C$0.02, after trading as low as C$0.01.


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


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

10-02-23 1223ET