Toronto Stocks Advance; Lithium Americas Shares Down on Discounted Pricing for $275 Million Public Offering

By Adriano Marchese

Stocks in Toronto were higher mid-trading on Thursday after closing virtually flat on Wednesday. The positive trend among Canada's sectors was broad-based, led by gains primarily in utilities, producer manufacturing and tech. Of the few decliners, health services lost the most, followed more distantly by consumer durables and energy.

At midday, Canada's S&P/TSX Composite Index was 0.5% higher at 21753.39 and the blue-chip S&P/TSX 60 rose by 0.4% to 1302.51.

Lithium Americas' Toronto-listed shares were down by nearly 28% to 6.64 Canadian dollars ($4.82) after the company priced its $275 million public offering at a discount to recent trading value. The funds are expected to be used primarily to advance its Thacker Pass lithium project in Nevada.

Other market movers:

MDA Space shares rose by 2.2% to C$14.54 after it said its contract with the Canadian Space Agency was extend. The company said it's worth C$250 million to continue supporting robotics operations in the International Space Station into the end of the decade.

Shares in 5N Plus were 1.5% higher at C$4.77 after it said it will receive $14.4 million from the U.S. Defense Department for the production of space-qualified materials for solar cells.

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 18, 2024 12:19 ET (16:19 GMT)

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