July 30 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories from
selected Canadian newspapers. Reuters has not verified these
stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
THE GLOBE AND MAIL
** The effects of falling oil prices are only starting to be
felt in Calgary's housing market, the city's local real-estate
board warned, with home prices expected to fall further as
unemployment continues to rise. Resale home prices likely will
end the year 0.2 percent lower for the year, the Calgary Real
Estate Board predicted in a mid-year forecast. (http://bit.ly/1h7g7ZD)
** Trading was halted on Home Capital Group Inc's HCG.TO
stock after the company revealed late Wednesday that it cut ties
with dozens of mortgage brokers in the wake of an investigation
that revealed they had falsified documents about borrowers'
incomes. The details of the internal investigation, which began
last fall, were made public at the request of the Ontario
Securities Commission, the company said. (http://bit.ly/1MvjR2V)
** Open Text Corp OTC.TO dished out a serving of
surprisingly good news with a side order of worse-than-expected
news as it announced its fourth-quarter results on Wednesday.
The business software company said it earned $482.7 million in
revenue in the period ended June 30, after warning just two
months ago that it would only bring in between $440 million and
$455 million. (http://bit.ly/1Mvk5qW)
NATIONAL POST
** The Conference Board of Canada cut its forecast to just
1.6 percent growth for the year, the worst since 2009, and
warned that more disappointment could lie ahead. Topping the
board's list of suspects dragging down economic activity are the
oil-price rout and weak business investment by Canadian
companies. (http://bit.ly/1MVS7Ct)
** TransUnion, a leading U.S. credit agency, is predicting
consumers in oil-dependent provinces will face "sharp" increases
in credit and loan product delinquencies in the coming quarters.
"Based on an historical analysis of the last oil crash and
recent payment behavior trends, we expect materially higher
delinquency rates in Alberta and Saskatchewan in the second half
of 2015," said Jason Wang, director of research and industry
analysis in Canada for TransUnion. (http://bit.ly/1MVSgG0)
** Torstar Corp TSb.TO surprised Bay Street analysts on
Wednesday by announcing it had spent $200 million to acquire a
56 percent stake in VerticalScope Inc, a Toronto-based company
that operates more than 600 digital properties that cover
everything from cars to pets to powersports. (http://bit.ly/1MVSgWF)