By Adriano Marchese


Toronto stocks, up in midday trading on Friday to regain some the losses they registered in recent days, are still on pace to end the week lower.

Canada's S&P/TSX Composite Index was 1.04% higher at 20329.44. The index is on track for nearly 2% decline this week. The blue-chip S&P/TSX 60 was up by 1.09% to 1217.44.

In the session, technolgoy, process industries and consumer discretionary were the top performing sectors. Only health tech, consumer durables, and to a lesser extent producer manufacturing were in the red. Markets will be closed on Monday for the Civic Holiday long weekend in Ontario and will resume trading on Tuesday.

TransAlta's stock was 2.2% higher at 13.61 Canadian dollars a share ($10.19) after the company said it swung to a profit in the second quarter due to better-than-expected revenue growth driven by lower commodity prices.

On the macro front, Canada's jobless rate in July rose as hiring failed to keep pace with the country's rapid population growth.


Other market movers:

Enbridge reported an increase in second-quarter profit thanks to logging a fair value gain in the quarter and reaffirmed its expectations for the year. Shares were 1% higher at C$48.53.

Eupraxia Pharmaceuticals' shares climbed 7.5% to C$7.85 after the biotechnology company moved to raise up to C$22 million from the sale of stock to help fund research and development activities.

Shares of Ensign Energy Services were 8.5% higher at C$2.68 after reporting better-than-expected profit and revenue in the second quarter, driven by strong operations in the U.S.

Kinross Gold's shares were 5.4% higher at C$6.66 after it renewed a buyback program with plans to purchase up to 10% of its outstanding shares.


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


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

08-04-23 1245ET