TORONTO — Some of the most active companies traded Thursday on the Toronto Stock Exchange:
Toronto Stock Exchange (19,774.41, up 28.94 points.)
Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. (TSX:IVN). Materials. Up 10 cents, or 1.09 per cent, to $9.28 on 42.8 million shares.
Suncor Energy Inc. (TSX:SU). Energy. Down 16 cents, or 0.57 per cent, to $27.82 on 22 million shares.
Barrick Gold Corp. (TSX:ABX). Materials. Down $1.54, or 5.17 per cent, to $28.24 on 21.1 million shares.
Denison Mines Corp. (TSX:DML). Materials. Up 16 cents, or 11.35 per cent, to $1.57 on 19.2 million shares.
SSR Mining Inc. (TSX:SSRM). Materials. Up 35 cents, or 1.57 per cent, to $22.58 on 14.3 million shares.
Bombardier Inc. (TSX:BBD.B). Industrials. Up one cent, or 1.08 per cent, to 94 cents on 12.8 million shares.
Companies in the news:
TD Bank Group. (TSX:TD). Down $2.22 or 2.5 per cent to $86.59. After a year of building up reserves to protect themselves from customers who may default on loans, banks are starting to consider how they might deploy their cash when the COVID-19 pandemic subsides. Many spent the bulk of last year stowing away billions of dollars in the event their customers fell on hard times, but fortunately government relief programs and fewer spending opportunities kept most consumers afloat. As vaccination efforts expand in Canada and talk of reopening is swirling in many provinces hit hardest by the virus, executives from the country's most prominent banks faced questions from analysts Thursday about what they'd do with all the cash they are sitting on. TD Bank Group chief executive Bharat Masrani indicated that acquisitions might be a possibility for his bank. Over at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, which held a call just before markets opened, analysts asked whether the bank would increase its lending programs, perhaps to include more consumer-based or auto products. Meanwhile, Royal Bank of Canada faced questions about dividends. Last year, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions banned executive compensation hikes, dividend increases and common share buybacks in an effort to keep banks and insurers stable even as other companies declared bankruptcy, resorted to mass layoffs and contended with lockdowns that left their businesses closed for long periods of time.
Royal Bank of Canada. (TSX:RY). Up $1.55 or 1.2 per cent to $126.00. Royal Bank of Canada topped expectations as it reported its second-quarter profit more than doubled compared with a year ago as it recovered some of the money set aside to cover loan losses. The bank said Thursday it earned nearly $4.02 billion or $2.76 per diluted share for the quarter ended April 30, up from a profit of $1.48 billion or $1.00 per diluted share a year earlier. RBC reversed $96 million of its provisions for credit losses in its latest quarter compared with the $2.83 billion it set aside in the same quarter last year at the start of the pandemic. Revenue totalled $11.62 billion, up from $10.33 billion in the same quarter last year. RBC said its adjusted earnings per diluted share for the quarter amounted to $2.79, up from $1.03 a year ago. Analysts on average had expected an adjusted profit of $2.48 per share, according to financial data firm Refinitiv. RBC reported its personal and commercial banking division earned $1.91 billion in the quarter, up from $532 million a year ago, due to the lower provisions for credit losses.
CIBC (TSX:CM). Up $3.96 or 2.9 per cent to $141.08. CIBC beat expectations as it more than tripled its second-quarter profit compared with a year ago at the start of the pandemic. The bank says it earned $1.65 billion or $3.55 per diluted share for the quarter ended April 30, up from a profit of $392 million or 83 cents per share a year ago. The increase came as CIBC's provisions for credit losses, the money set aside for bad loans, fell to $32 million compared with $1.41 billion in the same quarter last year at the onset of the pandemic. Total revenue grew to $4.93 billion from $4.58 billion in the same quarter last year. On an adjusted basis, CIBC says it earned nearly $1.67 billion or $3.59 per diluted share in its latest quarter, up from an adjusted profit of $441 million or 94 cents per diluted share a year earlier. Analysts on average had expected an adjusted profit of $3.01 per share, according to financial data firm Refinitiv.
Pieridae Energy Ltd. (TSX:PEA). Up two cents or 5.3 per cent to 40 cents. The company behind a proposed liquefied natural gas export facility in Nova Scotia is planning a power plant and carbon capture facility at its central Alberta natural gas processing plant that will help offset its LNG project's future carbon emissions. CEO Alfred Sorenson of Pieridae Energy Ltd. says its proposed Caroline Carbon Capture Power Complex resulted from research into ways that its Goldboro LNG project can achieve net-zero emissions status by 2050. He says the project answers recent criticism in Nova Scotia that Pieridae doesn't have a carbon emissions plan that would be acceptable to the European buyers of LNG it's targeting. Sorenson says details such as capital cost of the new project are lacking because a partner is deciding how big the natural gas-fired power plant will be and that will determine how much carbon can be captured and stored underground. He says the potential partner — "a player on the power side" — is expected to officially join the project in two weeks, adding Pieridae's announcement was made Thursday in part to coincide with its annual general meeting. Sorenson says the project would be able to store up to three million tonnes of carbon per year, which is roughly equal to the amount of emissions to be produced from the LNG project. He says the power plant would produce as much as 900 megawatts if three proposed phases are built.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 27, 2021.
The Canadian Press
