TORONTO - Some of the most active companies traded Wednesday on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the TSX Venture Exchange:

Toronto Stock Exchange (13,304.92 down 14.95 points):

CGI Group Inc. (TSX:GIB.A). Information technology. Down $1.49, or 3.87 per cent, at $37.03 on 6.38 million shares.

Sirocco Mining Inc. (TSX:SIM). Up 35 cents, 9.21 per cent, at 41.5 cents on 6.40 millin shares. Toronto-based Canada Lithium, which has an advanced lithium project in Quebec, is offering shares worth about $120 million based on recent market prices to acquire iodine producer Sirocco. Assuming the deal closes, shareholders of Vancouver-based Sirocco would own 42 per cent of the combined company.

Delphi Energy Corp. (TSX:DEE). Oil and gas. Up eight cents, or 5.13 per cent, at $1.64 on 5.62 million shares.

Surge Energy Inc. (TSX:SGY). Oil and gas. Down 14 cents, or 2.07 per cent, at $6.62 on 4.68 million shares.

Petrominerales Ltd. (TSX:PMG). Oil and gas. Up a penny, or 0.08 per cent, at $12.26 on 4.67 million shares.

Toronto Venture Exchange (919.52 up 4.23 points):

Midlands Minerals Corp. (TSXV:MEX). Miner. Up half a cent, or 100 per cent, at a penny on 14.70 million shares.

Corsa Coal Corp. (TSXV:CSO). Miner. Up a penny, or 7.14 per cent, at 15 cents on 10.98 million shares.

Companies reporting major news:

Barrick Gold (TSX:ABX). Miner. Up 21 cents, or 1.27 per cent, at $16.72 on 4.64 million shares. Founder Peter Munk will retire from the board of Barrick Gold Corp., as part of broad changes at the world's largest gold producer. Former Goldman Sachs executive John Thornton will be named chairman while two long-time directors will not stand for re-election. Barrick has faced difficult times this year as it has taken billions in writedowns, suspended work at its massive Pascua-Lama project in South America and slashed its dividend.

National Bank (TSX:NA). Bank. Down $1.37, or 1.51 per cent, at $89.53 on 1.52 million shares. Fourth-quarter revenue and net income at Canada's sixth-largest bank were down from a year earlier amid more difficult conditions in the financial services sector. The bank also announced the banking sector's first stock split in more than seven years. National, which is optimistic about the economy, is boosting its quarterly cash dividend by six per cent to 92 cents per share, starting Feb. 1

News from © The Canadian Press, 2013