Toronto Stocks Up; ATS Climbs on $195 Million Acquisition of Avidity Science

By Adriano Marchese

Toronto stocks were mildly higher in midday trading Friday, recovering from Thursday's steep decline. According to Statistics Canada, sales rose 0.3% in the country from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted 66.15 billion Canadian dollars ($49.06 billion), slightly weaker than the data agency's preliminary estimate last month of 0.4%. Most sectors were in the green, led by Canada's tech, consumer durables and health services. Health tech was the major laggard, followed by consumer discretionary and process industries.

At midday, Canada's S&P/TSX Composite Index edged 0.34% higher to 19859.41. The blue-chip S&P/TSX 60 climbed 0.3% to 1191.00.

Shares of ATS were 1.8% higher at C$58.59 after it announced its plans to buy Avidity Science $195 million, a manufacturer of automated water purification solutions for biomedical and life science applications based in the U.S.

Other market movers:

West Fraser Timber agreed to sell two of its pulp mills located in the provinces of British Columbia and Alberta for $120 million to U.S.-based Atlas Holdings as it doubles down on its wood building products focus. Shares are down 0.4% at C$95.21.

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 22, 2023 12:15 ET (16:15 GMT)

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