Roundup: Canadian stock market climbs amid geopolitical worries

Canada's main stock market in Toronto rose slightly on Tuesday as oil prices jumped after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane in Syria.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index was up 25.45 points, or 0.19 percent, to close at 13,407.83 points.

Six of the eight major sectors in TSX lost ground with utilities leading the decline by 2.43 percent.

The index, however, stayed in the positive territory on the closing bell as the resources shares rallied over the rising oil prices after Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet, intensifying the geopolitical worries in the Middle East.

The light, sweet crude oil for January delivery jumped 1.12 U.S. dollars to 42.87 dollars per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Tuesday.

Energy gained 1.93 percent when the oil and gas giant Encana soared 6.47 percent to 11.36 Canadian dollars (about 8.54 U.S. dollars) while Baytex Energy Corp. spiked 11.74 percent to 5.90 Canadian dollars per share.

Metals and mining, another heavily-weighed resources sector in TSX, logged the biggest gain by 2.49 percent as the leading companies First Quantum Minerals Ltd. rallied 7.71 percent to 4.89 Canadian dollars and Yamana Gold Inc. Rose sharply 11.79 percent to 2.75 Canadian dollars.

However, with no significant domestic economic data released, investors of the Canadian equities market focused on the outlook of the U.S. economy.

The U.S. Commerce Department reported on Tuesday that the U.S. real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 2.1 percent in the third quarter, lower than a growth of 3.9 percent in the previous quarter.

It was well over the advance estimate of 1.5 percent in economic growth it reported last month for the same period.

Analysts believe that there is little to change the trend for the American economy, and that the U.S. central bank is bound to raise its benchmark interest rates in December.

The latest U.S. GDP data "is broadly in line with the Fed's expectations and consistent with a gradual exit from the zero lower bound," according to James Marple, a senior economist from TD Bank.

In response, financials,the most weighed sector in TSX, lowered 0.14 percent when most of the banks plunged with Royal Bank of Canada down 0.3 percent to 75.26 Canadian dollars apiece.

On the currency front, stimulated by the rising oil, the Canadian dollar edged up to 0.7514 U.S. dollar at 4 o'clock (the Canadian Eastern Daylight Time), when compared with 0.7478 U.S. dollar on Monday. Endit