Category: Canada

Canada’s main stock index struggled for direction on Wednesday, as investors remained cautious on U.S. tariff negotiations with trading partners and assessed the Bank of Canada’s decision to maintain the interest rate.

The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index was flat at 26,426.98 points. The index notched a record peak in the previous two sessions.

The U.S. doubled tariffs on imported steel and aluminum on Wednesday, the same day as the deadline for Washington’s trading partners to make their best offers to avoid hefty “Liberation Day” tariffs from taking effect in July.

Europe’s top trade negotiator said that trade talks between the European Union and the U.S. are going in the right direction.

Also on Wednesday, Trump called China’s Xi Jinping “extremely hard to make a deal with”, pointing to frictions after the White House raised expectations for a long-awaited phone call between the two leaders this week.

Meanwhile, the Bank of Canada held its key benchmark rate at 2.75%, citing the need to assess the effects of U.S. trade policy, but indicated another cut might be necessary if tariffs weaken the economy.

“The market has become a little insensitive to all the trade headlines until we have something more concrete”, said Angelo Kourkafas, senior global investment strategist at Edward Jones.

“The market is choosing to focus again on the fundamental factors…there’s been a lot of reversals in these news headlines, while at the same time economic data have continued to come in pretty strong, which has allowed the markets to look a little bit past those headlines.”

Data showed Canada’s services economy downturn eased in May, as firms grew more hopeful that trade and political uncertainty would become less of a drag on activity over the coming 12 months.

Canadian labor productivity rose by 0.2% in the first quarter.

On TSX, metal miners’ shares gained 0.7% tracking higher gold prices, while the healthcare subindex gained 0.6%.

International Resources Holding (IRH), a unit of International Holding Company (IHC), has entered into a definitive agreement to buy a majority stake in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s tin producer Alphamin Resources for $367 million as the Abu Dhabi-based company continues to expand its presence in Africa.

As part of the agreement, IRH, through a wholly owned subsidiary, is buying a 56 per cent stake in Alphamin from Tremont Master Holdings, paying C$0.70 per share, or about $367 million, the two companies said in a statement on Wednesday.

Alphamin, which is listed on Canada’s TSX Venture Exchange and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, is one of the world’s largest producers of tin that is used in electronics, manufacturing, and industrial applications.

“This acquisition strengthens IRH’s position in the global industrial metals sector, adding a majority interest in a highly productive and strategically important tin asset to its portfolio,” the companies said.

IRH is part of 2PointZero, which was set up by IHC last year, with more than Dh100 billion ($27.2 billion) in assets.

The company has been expanding its operations globally, with a focus on energy transition minerals and resources such as copper, cobalt, nickel, lithium, 3T (tin, tantalum and tungsten), manganese and graphite.

Last year, IRH completed the acquisition of Mopani Copper Mines in Zambia, to expand its operations in the mining sector, for $1.1 billion. It also signed a joint venture agreement for mineral exploration ion Balochistan province of Pakistan in March.

Its other agreements include a collaboration with South Africa’s Public Investment Corporation, with a focus on unlocking value across the mining, green energy and transport and logistics sectors.

“Alphamin’s strong production profile aligns with our strategy of securing interests in high-quality mining assets with long-term growth potential,” Ali Alrashdi, chief executive of IRH, said.

IHC, the largest listed company in the UAE, is on an acquisition spree. The conglomerate aims to double its asset base to Dh800 billion and hit the Dh200 billion annual revenue mark by the end of the decade, its chief executive Syed Basar Shueb told The National in an interview last month.

The UAE, the Arab world’s second-largest economy, accounts for 60 per cent of IHC’s Dh416.5 billion asset base as of the first quarter this year, while the rest is spread across the region and the markets beyond.

Galaxy aside, the trend has been waning, according to data from TMX Group Ltd., which operates Canada’s largest stock exchanges. Since 2021, the total number of Toronto Stock Exchange-listed companies with a dual listing in the U.S. has fallen by roughly 16 per cent, from 202 companies to 169, the data shows.

Mumbai: Go Digit Life Insurance Limited (Digit Life), a new-age life insurance company, said its revenue (total gross written premium including reinsurance inward) crossed Rs 1,315.9 crore in FY 2024-25 compared to Rs 492.5 crore in the year-ago period.

The company settled claims worth Rs2.88 billion in FY 2024-25 with most claims (worth Rs1.97 billion) being paid under the Group Term Life Insurance category. Digit Life’s average TAT of death claims settlement too, improved to 1.89 days during the year from 2 days in FY 23-24 with its claims settlement ratio for the same period hitting 99.53%.Digit Life shared the key figures as part of the second edition of its Transparency Report, a bi-annual exercise where it goes beyond mandatory disclosures and shares various data-led insights and stories.

“We are encouraged by the response we have received in the last one year. We now have a robust portfolio of both retail and group products and will look to expand both segments equally in the coming years. We as a company will continue to focus on simplifying life insurance products and improving trust levels in the ecosystem—with the transparency report both as our report card and trust promise,” Sabyasachi Sarkar, MD & CEO, Digit Life, said.

The company said it has developed a fully automated and secure verification process to identify and check declaration matches and built advanced face matching technology to verify the identity of its customers. It has also developed a claim document classification service that uses an intelligent process to quickly sort claims documents.
Digit Life Insurance has served 6.7 million customers since its inception and now has over 4,000 agents and intermediaries. Its Solvency Ratio currently stands at 3.85.
Oben Ventures LLP (promoted by Kamesh Goyal) and FAL Corporation (having Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited as its ultimate parent company) are the promoters of Digit Life Insurance. Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange in Canada.