Canada Factory Sales Surprise in September With 0.5% Gain

Canadian manufacturing shipments unexpectedly rose in September, with strong sales of energy products overcoming a decrease in the auto sector.

Factory sales climbed 0.5% in September on a seasonally adjusted basis to 53.74 billion Canadian dollars ($42.07 billion) from August, Statistics Canada said Thursday. The result exceeded market expectations for a 0.5% drop in shipments, according to economists at Royal Bank of Canada, and builds on August's revised advance of 1.4%.

On a volume, or price-adjusted basis, manufacturing sales in September rose 0.7%.

The report, though, indicated factory-sector strength was concentrated in a handful of sectors, as sales rose in just seven of the 21 components tracked on a month-over-month basis.

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 16, 2017 08:45 ET (13:45 GMT)