03:29 PM EST - Canadian Tire Corp. : reported a 13 percent increase in third-quarter profits to $95.4 million, the hardware store chain said Thursday. Toronto-based Canadian Tire said its earnings amounted to $1.16 per diluted share, compared with net earnings of $84.4 million or $1.02 per share in the prior-year period. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had looked on average for earnings of $1.10 per share in the period. Retail sales rose 9 percent to $2.43 billion from a year-ago $2.23 billion. Canadian Tire Corp.
T.CTC.A are trading down 81 cents at $74.19.
