By Chris Fournier Aug. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Canada’s dollar advanced for a third straight session against its U.S. counterpart, the euro and the yen as improved sentiment toward risk taking boosted stocks worldwide, improving the outlook for higher-yielding currencies. Canada’s currency is the top performer this week against the greenback among the 16 most-traded currencies. Investors are mulling the potential for more natural resource acquisitions after BHP Billiton Ltd.’s $40 billion hostile bid this week for Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. “We are seeing the U.S. dollar under some pressure on the basis of risk appetite,” Jeremy Stretch, global head of foreign-exchange strategy at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce’s CIBC World Markets unit, said by phone from London. “Obviously the markets are still digesting the whole M&A story vis-a-vis the Potash deal. That isn’t undermining sentiment either, so I think that’s continuing to play into the relative strength of the Canadian dollar.” The Canadian currency appreciated 0.3 percent to C$1.0264 per U.S. dollar at 8:09 a.m. in Toronto, compared with C$1.0296 yesterday. It reached C$1.0248 earlier, the strongest level since Aug. 6. One Canadian dollar buys 97.43 U.S. cents. “If we do go down through C$1.0250, then it probably suggests that we’re going to try to go down through C$1.02 to maybe the C$1.0188 area,” Stretch said. The MSCI World Index, a gauge of equities in 23 developed nations, rose 0.3 percent. To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Fournier in Montreal at cfournier3@bloomberg.net

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