Equity markets in Toronto slipped on Friday and was set for weekly losses as investors were cautious ahead of a Bank of Canada meeting next week, while domestic retail sales surprisingly declined in November.
The TSX Composite stayed negative by noon EST, 16.1 points to 20,740.03.
The Canadian dollar eked up 0.09 cents to 74.24 cents U.S.
Real estate firm Tricon Residential jumped $3.21, or 27.6%, to $14.86 to become the top gainer after Investment management company Blackstone agreed to take the company private for $3.5 billion.
Richelieu Hardware declined $2.00, or 4.5%, to $42.51, after it was downgraded to “sector perform” from “outperform” by the National Bank of Canada.
Retail trade figures decreased 0.2% to $66.6 billion in November. Sales were down in four of nine subsectors and were led by decreases at food and beverage…
