TORONTO — Some of the most active companies traded Friday on the Toronto Stock Exchange:
Toronto Stock Exchange (20,099.81, up 400.76 points.)
Manulife Financial Corp. (TSX:MFC). Financials. Up 66 cents, or 3.02 per cent, to $22.52 on 16.1 million shares.
Enbridge Inc. (TSX:ENB). Energy. Up 98 cents, or 1.76 per cent, to $56.56 on 15.6 million shares.
Western Energy Services Corp. (TSX:WRG). Energy. Up half a cent, or 16.67 per cent, to 3.5 cents on 11.7 million shares.
Cenovus Energy Inc. (TSX:CVE). Energy. Up $1.10, or 4.42 per cent, to $26.01 on 8.8 million shares.
Auxly Cannabis Group Inc. (TSX:XLY). Health care. Up 2.5 cents, or 17.24 per cent, to 17 cents on 8.5 million shares.
Suncor Energy Inc. (TSX:SU). Energy. Up 94 cents, or 2.04 per cent, to $46.92 on 8.3 million shares.
Companies in the news:
Cineplex Inc. (TSX:CGX). Up $1.02 or 8.93 per cent to $12.44. Canadians are returning to cinemas after more than two years of COVID-19 measures, handing a revenue bump to the country's largest cinema chain. Cineplex Inc. said Friday that theatregoers' spending on tickets and snacks boosted its first-quarter revenue to $228.7 million, up from $41.4 million in the first three months of 2021. Box office revenue per patron was a record $12 for the quarter ended March 31, compared with $9.20 a year ago, while concession revenue per patron was an all-time quarterly record at $8.82, up from $6.12 in the same quarter last year. Cineplex reported a first-quarter loss of $42.2 million, which amounted to 67 cents per share, compared with a loss of $89.7 million or $1.42 per diluted share a year earlier. Built into those numbers are $29.1 million in wage and rent subsidies offered by governments during the pandemic, which compared with $11.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2021 and $28.2 million in the first quarter of 2021.
Rogers Communications Inc. (TSX:RCI.B). Up 42 cents or 0.66 per cent to $64.25. As the Competition Bureau seeks to block Rogers Communications Inc.'s takeover of Shaw Communications Inc., over concerns the $26-billion deal will reduce wireless competition, some industry watchers say even bolder action is needed to provide more options to Canadian consumers. Thomas Ross, professor at the UBC Sauder School of Business, says Canada being a big and expensive country to run networks, combined with low population density, means there will always be limits to the telecom options. He says there are, however, some measures the federal government can take to help spur competition in Canada's telecom industry, like letting foreign wireless companies operate in Canada, whether it's an international company taking over a regional player and growing it or building its own network from scratch. Ross also says the feds could force Canada's telecom giants to sell wholesale access to their networks at much more favourable prices to facilitate the growth of Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs), which buy network service from major carriers at a wholesale rate.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 13, 2022.
The Canadian Press
