The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition global mergers and acquisition volumes are at multiyear highs, and Canada has benefited from that momentum, boosting the country's investment banks in the first nine months of the year. The Globe's Jacqueline Nelson writes according to data from Thomson Reuters, the value of M&A deals involving a Canadian buyer or seller was up to $149.8-billion (U.S.) in the first three quarters, from $111.3-billion in the same period last year. As confident business leaders and relatively strong share prices encourage deals, financing has followed. "It has been a very active equity capital markets calendar," said John McCartney, head of global equity capital markets at Scotia Capital. Total equity sales hit $33.15-billion so far this year, excluding the banks' self-led deals, up from $22-billion last year. Scotia was the top underwriter, leading $5.41-billion in stock sales. This has been the busiest year for equity issuance since 2009, Mr. McCartney said. However, where 2009 was dominated by defensive financing to shore up capital in the storm of the recession, this year's strong performance has been driven largely by acquisitions, like Manulife's $1.76-billion stock sale.