THE Canadian stock market has approved Sun Life Financial, Inc.’s normal course issuer bid (NCIB) to buy for cancellation as many as 15 milion of its common shares, the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) said in a statement on Friday.

The NCIB will give the company flexibility to acquire common shares to return capital to shareholders as part of its overall capital management strategy, according to the statement.

The NCIB will start on Aug. 14 and continue until Aug. 13, 2020 or earlier as Sun Life completes its purchases pursuant to the NCIB.

The average daily trading volume on the TSX for the six months ending July 31 was 1.57 million common shares. Under the TSX rules, Sun Life may buy as much as 25% of that number each trading day, subject to TSX rules allowing block purchases, it said.

Under its normal course issuer bid that expires on Aug. 13, Sun Life may buy for cancellation as many as 18 million common shares.

As of Aug. 7, the company has bout 16.7 million common shares for cancellation at a volume weighted average price of about $50.41 each.

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