National Business

TORONTO — Canada's main stock index gained almost 100 points Friday, boosted by strength in industrials and telecom, while U.S. markets were also up. The S&P/TSX composite index was up 96.33 points at 19,980.91.

OTTAWA — The families of Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc. will be the big winners if the $26-billion proposed merger goes through and low-income Canadians will be left even further behind, an economics professor said Friday.

TORONTO — For the second time this year a major Canadian public pension is writing down to zero a bet on cryptocurrency as the risky market sours.

WINNIPEG — The Manitoba government has introduced a bill in the legislature to formally enact a raise in the minimum wage.

CALGARY — It's been eight years since Canadian securities regulators instituted so-called comply-or-explain rules in an effort to increase the number of women in the nation's corporate boardrooms and executive offices.

TORONTO — Shawcor Ltd. says it has sold its oilfield asset management business to Force Inspection Services Inc. in a deal worth at least $15 million.

TORONTO — Rio Tinto has called off a controversial side agreement it had signed with a pair of shareholders that opposed the company's plan to buy a minority stake in Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd. that it does not already own.

TORONTO — Speaking for the first time publicly since their business relationship soured, Torstar Corp. owners Paul Rivett and Jordan Bitove confirmed there was no reconciliation ahead as their approaches to business were too different.

SCHIPHOL, Netherlands (AP) — A Dutch court on Thursday convicted three men of murder for their role in shooting down a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet with a Russian surface-to-air missile, killing all 298 people aboard the aircraft as it flew over a

Twitter continued to bleed engineers and other workers on Thursday, after new owner Elon Musk gave them a choice to pledge to “hardcore” work or resign with severance pay.