stocks in toronto were higher in midday trading monday led by the finance sector as earnings season for canadas big banks builds the sptsx composite index was 03 higher at 2027063 and the bluechip sptsx 60 was up 02 at 122055 most market sectors were stronger though health services and health technology stocks partially offset the gains most of the big banks were up with national bank of canada ahead by 06 at c9970 and royal bank of canada 06 stronger at c13799 torontodominion bank bucked the trend falling 08 to c9041 after it said it would pay 121 billion to settle litigation involving the stanford financial group canadian imperial bank of commerce reported strongerthanexpected fiscal firstquarter adjusted earnings last friday bank of montreal and bank of nova scotia are scheduled to turn in quarterly results on tuesday followed by royal bank and national bank the day after shares of uniselect inc were 16 higher at c4680 after usbased lkq corp announced the acquisition of the canadian distributor of automotive refinish and industrial paint in a deal with an enterprise value of roughly 206 billion argonaut gold incs shares dropped 18 to c045 after the mining companys fourthquarter loss widened as revenue was dented by a fall in gold sales and costs rose with a writedown of inventories