Roundup: Canadian stock market rallies on oil rebound, upbeat economic data

Canada's main stock market Tuesday racked up a triple-digit gain over an oil price rally and Canada's stronger-than-expected economic growth.

Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index advanced 161.65 points, or 1.12 percent, to 14,594.03 points.

As a market which is closely related to the commodities including oil, the index was boosted when the global crude market gained some momentum. Light, sweet crude for February delivery moved up 1.86 dollars to settle at 57.12 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for February delivery gained 1.58 dollars to close at 61.69 dollars a barrel.

Meanwhile, Statistics Canada said Tuesday that real gross domestic product(GDP)grew 0.3 percent in October, better than expected. The agency attributes the rise to educational services, mining and oil and gas extraction as well as manufacturing.

"(The growth is) far surpassing expectations for a modest 0.1 percent gain. This report could, at least temporarily, quiet the bearish Canada camp. Indeed, it looks as though the economy was in much better shape than expected before the huge drop in oil prices, " according to Benjamin Reitzes, a senior economist of Bank of Montreal.

In direct response, the resources sectors logged gains on Tuesday with Metals and Mining hiking 2.8 percent and Energy rising 1.88 percent. Industrials moved up 1.52 percent. Financials, the TSX most weighed sector, also increased 1.16 percent.

As for the performances of giant companies stocks, Teck Resources Ltd, the Canadian basic metals producer, jumped 4.15 percent to 15.57 Canadian dollars (about 13.39 U.S. dollars) while Suncor Energy Inc., the leader in the energy sector, rallied 2.49 percent to 37.80 percent. Encana climbed 1.91 percent to 16.02 Canadian dollars as the Canada's biggest gas producer announced it would sell some natural gas gathering and compression facilities in British Columbia it owns jointly with a unit of Mitsubishi Corp to Veresen Midstream LP.

The industrial giant Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. grew 1.76 percent to 226.93 Canadian dollars, while the giant lender TD boosted 1.32 percent to 55.16 Canadian dollars.

However, healthcare, down 0.44 percent, was the only loser among TSX sectors as the drug maker Valeant Pharmaceuticals International tumbled 2.49 percent to 163.60 Canadian dollars per share.

The investors were looking for new clues from Statistics Canada 's report ahead of the new year. "2015 will likely be much more challenging as the drop in oil prices starts to bite. Indeed, GDP growth looks to decelerate to a sub-2 percent pace in 2015H1 (the first half of 2015), the weakest since 2012," Reitzes said.

On the currency front, the Canadian dollar went higher Tuesday to 0.8598 U.S. dollar from 0.8593 U.S. dollar on Monday, over the upbeat GDP data. Endite