By Adriano Marchese


Stocks in Toronto were slightly lower on Monday after the Easter holiday long weekend.

Manufacturing activity in Canada improved slightly in March as output and new orders fell modestly but confidence improved.

Sector performance was mixed at midday, with gains primarily in producer manufacturing, materials and tech offset by losses mainly in health services, communications and health tech.

Canada's S&P/TSX Composite Index was down by 0.09%, to 22146.88, and the blue-chip S&P/TSX 60 fell 0.22%, to 1330.79.

Shares in Ballard Power Systems were 15% higher, at 4.33 Canadian dollars (US$3.20), after it said it signed a long-term supply deal with a European bus manufacturer for 1,000 hydrogen-fuel-cell engines, the largest order in the company's history. The company also said it would receive a further $54 million in U.S. federal funding support to help with the construction of its new fuel-cell factory in Texas.


Other market movers:

Antibe Therapeutics shares were 59% lower, to C$0.19, after it said that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration placed a clinical hold on its nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug otenaproxesul, postponing the start of its planned phase 2 trial.

Parkland shares were down by 2.4%, to C$42.12, after it said that it has brought its oil refinery in British Columbia back online after cold weather had kept the facility closed since mid-January.

Sigma Lithium shares were 8.9% higher, at C$19.13, after the company said its board has approved an expansion of its plant in Brazil that would nearly double yearly lithium-production capacity.


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


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

04-01-24 1227ET