Most actively traded companies on the TSX

Some of the most active companies traded Wednesday on the Toronto Stock Exchange:

Toronto Stock Exchange (15,657.63, up 38.55 points):

Spartan Energy Corp. (TSX:SPE). Oil and gas. Up six cents, or 1.47 per cent, to $4.13 on 16.2 million shares.

Crescent Point Energy Corp. (TSX:CPG). Oil and gas. Down $1.38, or 3.10 per cent, to $43.17 on 5.9 million shares.

Levon Resources Ltd. (TSX:LVN). Down 1.5 cents, or 5.88 per cent, to 24 cents on 5.1 million shares.

Manulife Financial Corp. (TSX:MFC). Insurance. Up 19 cents, or 0.86 per cent, to $22.36 on 4.3 million shares. After markets closed, Manulife announced plans to buy Standard Life Oversea Holdings Ltd, a subsidiary of Standard Life plc, for $4 billion in cash.

ProMetic Life Sciences Inc. (TSX:PLI). Biotechnology. Unchanged at $1.65 on 4.3 million shares.

Lucara Diamond Corp. (TSX:LUC). Miner. Down one cent, or 0.41 per cent, to $2.43 on 3.9 million shares.

Companies reporting major news:

Alimentation Couche-Tard (TSX:ATD.B). Retail. Up $2.22, or 6.68 per cent, to $35.45 on 1.1 million shares. The convenience store and fuel station operator reported its quarterly net income rose 5.7 per cent to $269.5 million or 47 cents a share. It also announced that it’s increasing its quarterly shareholder dividend by half a cent to 4.5 cents per share.

Transcontinental Inc. (TCL.A). Publishing. Up 70 cents, or 4.59 per cent, to $15.95 on 220,947 shares. The company says it will end the publication of 20 weekly newspapers in Quebec, resulting in the layoff of about 80 employees, and sell 14 others. The newspapers, for the most part, will be integrated with other publications it holds in the same regions.