Roundup: Canadian stock market surges as miners jump over China's boost

Canada's main stock market resumed the rising streak Tuesday over a big rally on copper prices, boosted by China's increased imports.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index gained 152.36 points or 1.13 percent to 13,630.67 points on the closing bell.

The mining sector soared 8.76 percent as the prices of basic metals including copper moved higher. The three-month unofficial copper price was up 172 U.S. dollars, or 3.34 percent, to 5,323 U.S. dollars per tonne on the London Metal Exchange (LME).

The commodities market gained momentum over a surge in China's concentrate imports, when China official data showed Tuesday that the world's second biggest economy imported about 8.12 million metric tons of copper ore and copper concentrates in the first eight months of 2015, up 12.1 percent on a yearly basis.

Canada's leading copper producers First Quantum Minerals Ltd. skyrocketed 22.9 percent to 7.62 Canadian dollars (about 5.77 U.S. dollars), while Teck Resources Ltd. surged 5.88 percent to 8.64 Canadian dollars.

Industrials climbed 2.1 percent when Canadian National Railway Company gained 2.73 percent to 72.73 Canadian dollars.

Financials, the most heavily weighed sector, also advanced 1.42 percent ahead of the Canadian central bank's interest rate announcement, as most investors expected that the Bank would maintain its overnight rate at 0.50 percent Wednesday.

According to an analysis report by TD Bank last Friday, the market volatility and global uncertainty suggest that the balance of risk remains tilted to the downside and the central bank will remain quite cautious in its assessment of the outlook, but "we cannot rule out another cut at the October if conditions deteriorate further."

Most of big banks were in the green with Royal Bank of Canada leading the rise, up 2.16 percent to 72.41 Canadian dollars per share.

Health Care, down 2.47 percent, was the only loser in TSX's eight major sectors.

On the currency front, the Canadian dollar moved higher Tuesday to 0.7573 U.S. dollar, compared with 0.7539 U.S. dollar last Friday. Enditem