TORONTO — Some of the most active companies traded Wednesday on the Toronto Stock Exchange:
Toronto Stock Exchange (15,272.03, up 123.91 points.)
Air Canada (TSX:AC). Industrials. Down $1.23, or 6.96 per cent, to $16.44 on 17.4 million shares.
HEXO Corp. (TSX:HEXO). Health care. Down three cents, or 3.09 per cent, to 94 cents on 12.7 million shares.
Suncor Energy Inc. (TSX:SU). Energy. Down five cents, or 0.21 per cent, to $24.28 on 11.5 million shares.
The Green Organic Dutchman Holdings. (TSX:TGOD). Health care. Down 5.5 cents, or 10.19 per cent, to 48.5 cents on 10.5 million shares.
Bombardier Inc. (TSX:BBD.B). Industrials. Up one cent, or 1.96 per cent, to 52 cents on 10.4 million shares.
The Toronto-Dominion Bank (TSX:TD). Financials. Up $2.89, or 4.83 per cent, to $62.0 on 10.3 million shares.
Companies in the news:
Rogers Communications Inc. (TSX:RCI.B). Up 95 cents or 1.7 per cent to $57.50. Sales of mobile phones have been "very quiet" and likely won't pick up until customers return to stores and malls that have been temporarily closed due to the pandemic, the head of Canada's largest wireless business said Wednesday. Rogers has opened about 90 stores in each of the past three weeks, Rogers CEO Joe Natale said. He said the slower pace of phone sales has reduced costs for Rogers, which spent about $2 billion in 2019 to subsidize customer phone purchases.
ATS Automation Tooling Systems Inc. (TSX:ATA). Down 69 cents, or 3.1 per cent to $21.55. ATS Automation Tooling Systems Inc. says it is focused on its costs and the preservation of liquidity as it works to deal with disruptions caused by the pandemic. The maker of automation systems says it has cut discretionary spending, deferred of some capital investments, and in some locations temporarily laid off workers and reduced hours. ATS made the comments as it reported a fourth-quarter profit of $13.1 million or 14 cents per diluted share, down from a profit of $18.2 million or 20 cents per share a year ago.
Torstar Corp. (TSX:TS.B). Up 20 cents or 50 per cent to 60 cents. Shares of Torstar Corp. surged Wednesday after the media giant struck a $52-million deal to be bought by a firm operated by two Canadian businessmen. The owner of the Toronto Star newspaper, and numerous other local media outlets, announced late Tuesday it would be taken private by NordStar Capital LP, owned by Paul Rivett and Jordan Bitove. The NordStar offer is 63 cents per share for all of Torstar's outstanding class A shares and class B non-voting shares.
BMO Financial Group (TSX:BMO). Up 59 cents to $70.78. BMO Financial Group reported a second-quarter profit of $689 million, down from $1.5 billion a year ago, as it increased the amount set aside for bad loans due to the pandemic. The bank said Wednesday its total provision for credit losses for the quarter was $1.11 billion, up from $176 million in the same quarter last year. However, BMO still reported a profit of $1.00 per share for the quarter ended April 30 compared with a profit of $2.26 per share a year earlier.
Royal Bank of Canada (TSX:RY). Up $4.22 or 4.8 per cent to $92.25. A massive increase in provisions for bad loans due to the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in Royal Bank of Canada reporting a 54 per cent decline in its second-quarter profit. It recorded a $2.4-billion increase in provisions for credit losses at its personal and commercial banking, capital markets and wealth management units. RBC's net profit for the three months ended April 30 declined to $1.48 billion from $3.23 billion a ago. The drop was due mainly to $2.83 billion of provisions for credit losses, up from $426 million in the same quarter last year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 27, 2020.
The Canadian Press
