By Adriano Marchese


Stocks in Toronto were firmly in red territory midday Friday. Statistics Canada reported that advance results of wholesale sales for the month of September in Canada point to flat.

Sector performance was mixed, with utilities, communications and consumer durables leading the downward trend. Tech, process industries and tech-services stocks were the main gainers.

Canada's S&P/TSX Composite Index was down 0.40% to 18800.17 and the blue-chip S&P/TSX 60 fell by 0.47% to 1129.07. The indexes are both under pressing, down 3.00% and 3.41%, respectively year-to-date.

Corus Entertainment shares were nearly 29% lower at 65 Canadian cents (47 cents) after the Canadian mass media company said it would suspend its dividend as the company faces softer demand for advertising.


Other market movers:

Shares of Imperial Oil were down 1.4% at C$80.17 after reporting a drop in third-quarter profit due largely to softer commodity prices that put more pressure on revenue than expected.

Eldorado Gold shares rose 8.4% to C$14.82 after the Canadian miner narrowed its loss in the latest quarter due to higher revenue with increased sales volumes and a higher gold price.

Laurion Mineral Exploration shares were down 4.9% at C$0.49 on plans to raise about C$2.7 million through a private placement to help fund its flagship gold and polymetallic project in Ontario.


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


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

10-27-23 1222ET