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TSX up Near 250 Points at Midday, Led by Tech and Healthcare Sectors

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The Toronto Stock Exchange is up 247 points with most sectors higher midday Thursday.

The best performers are info tech and healthcare, up 2.1% and 1.5%, respective.

The mining sector has shed 1.8%, dragged by precious-metals prices: gold is down 0.3% and silver, down 4.5%

Canada March wholesale sales (excluding petroleum and grains) rose 1.9% to $89 billion, above the 1.3% consensus forecast. Sales increased in five of the seven subsectors, led by machinery, equipment and supplies, Statistics Canada said. Wholesale sales were 3.3% higher in March than in the same month one year earlier.

Canada and Alberta will meet on Friday and advance a potential pipeline to transport at least one million barrels of Alberta oil a day to new markets, Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Thursday, Reuters reports.

In stocks, Manulife (MFC.TO) shares are down 6.3% to $51.16 per share with 4.4-million shares being traded, after it reported a core earnings miss after trade on Wednesday.

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Mining & Metals

PyroGenesis Reaches Out of Court Settlement to Acquire its Turcot Manufacturing Facility

PyroGenesis (PYR.TO) on Thursday said it reached an out-of-court settlement with the owner of its Turcot manufacturing facility in Montreal to sell it to the company for $3.1 million.The company in 2022 exercised an contractual option to acquire the plant in for $2.75 million, but the owner refused to sell and PyroGenesis launched a suit to force compliance in Quebec Superior Court. The court is expected to approve the settlement today.This property is the company's 40,902 square feet facility. The Turcot facility is located about 6.2 kilometers from its downtown Montreal headquarters."This is great news, as we have managed to not only secure our key factory location for the long term, but we have also acquired an asset of significant value for our stakeholders," chief executive Peter Pascali "Our purchase price of approximately $76/sq. ft. is significantly under the current market price for this area ... A sale-leaseback structure could quickly unlock this value which the company could use to accelerate projects in its various businesses. We look forward to initiating sale-leaseback discussions with interested parties, very soon."Shares of the company were last seen down $0.01 to $0.43 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.Price: $0.43, Change: $-0.01, Percent Change: -2.27%

$PYR.TO
Mining & Metals

CIBC Says Strong Earnings From Banks Due to Capital Markets in Q2 Preview, Downgrades National Bank

CIBC recommends investors rotate money out of banks into lifecos, even as it expects a strong second-quarter earnings from the sector when it starts reporting on May 27. Analyst Paul Holden, who notes that the strong earnings will be predominately based on capital markets activity, has also downgraded National Bank (NA.TO) to neutral.Holden says the credit outlook is incrementally worse and he is getting more cautious on credit losses given the weakness in Canadian unemployment, a soft housing market in the GTA, and industry credit metrics. Loan growth is expected to remain muted and net interest margin is also likely to be less of a tailwind this quarter. "We would not be surprised to see the banks report EPS beats again this quarter, but perhaps like the U.S. banks, capital markets-driven beats will no longer be good enough to drive the stocks higher."National Bank is downgraded to neutral from outperform, with Holden pointing out that "two years' worth of returns were delivered in three months". The stock is up ~20% in the past three months and is now trading at the highest multiple in the group (9% premium on F2027 consensus). Fiscal 2028 consensus estimates are giving full credit for ROE expansion, Holden adds.BMO (BMO.TO) is Holden's only outperformer-rated bank as there is still upside potential to consensus estimates relative to its 15% ROE target. "With the recovery in U.S. commercial loan growth, there is also a possibility that U.S. balance sheet growth comes in higher than expected. We also think the relative skew to the U.S. can help with impaired PCLs in the near term."BMO is trading at a 5% discount to the group average P/E and a strong quarter that demonstrates continued progress towards ROE targets should help the stock.Price: $203.95, Change: $-0.69, Percent Change: -0.34%

$BMO.TO$BNS.TO$CM.TO$NA.TO$RY.TO$TD.TO
Mining & Metals

Market Chatter: PM Carney to Meet Alberta's Premier on Friday to Advance Oil-Export Pipeline Plans

Prime Minister Mark Carney will meet with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith on Friday to advance plans to build a build a pipeline to carry Alberta bitumen to British Columbia's Pacific coast, Reuters reported.The two leaders are expected to detail an agreement on industrial carbon-emissions pricing, a key part of a memorandum of understanding the pair reached in November. The price of emissions is expected to rise to $130 per tonne by 2040 to incent oil-sands producers to capture carbon and lower emissions from the sector, a key condition for construction of a second oil pipeline to the coast.(Market Chatter news is derived from conversations with market professionals globally. This information is believed to be from reliable sources but may include rumor and speculation. Accuracy is not guaranteed.)