By Paul Vieira

Toronto stocks were up at midday on Friday, building on the previous day's gain, on broad-based support led by telecommunications providers and the country's big banks.

That offset declines from software company Docebo, which said its chief financial officer was leaving the company, and Algoma Steel, which was down following the Biden administration's decision to block the sale of U.S. Steel.

Canada's S&P/TSX Composite Index rose 0.5% to 25034.66 and the blue-chip S&P/TSX 60 increased 0.6% to 1500.01. Eight of the nine main subcomponents were higher, led by telecom and financial services. Base metals was the lone decliner.

Three of Canada's big banks--Toronto-Dominion Bank, Bank of Nova Scotia and National Bank--were higher and among the most actively-traded stocks, and the financial-services subindex rose 0.6%. The telecom subindex increased 1.4%, led by BCE, up 1.6% to 34.04 Canadian dollars, or the equivalent of $23.63, and Rogers Communications, up 1.1% to C$44.27.

Other market movers:

Shares of Docebo, a Toronto software company, dropped 3.4% to C$63.10, after it said late Thursday that its chief financial officer was leaving the company to join a private-equity firm. Docebo said the departure of Sukaran Mehta isn't related to any conflict with the company executives or the board over its financial performance.

Algoma Steel fell 5.3% to C$13.24, after the company issued guidance for the quarter just ended. Prior to the start of trading, the Biden administration formally rejected the planned takeover of U.S. Steel by Japan's Nippon Steel.

Write to Paul Vieira at paul.vieira@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 03, 2025 12:31 ET (17:31 GMT)

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