Roundup: Canadian stock rallies with energy boost, Canadian dollar uptrending

Canada's energy-laden main stock market in Toronto waged a strong comeback Thursday as crude prices bounced up from recent tailspin sell-off.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index regained 192.75 points, or 1.63 percent, to close at 12,035.86 points. Half of the TSX index's eight main sectors turned positive.

The West Texas Intermediate, key U.S. oil prices, moved up almost 5 percent to sit at 29.53 U.S. dollars a barrel for March delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for March delivery added 1.37 dollars to close at 29.25 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.

TSX energy companies were buoyed with a leading 5.22 percent advance. Calgary-based Baytex Energy Corp. soared 23.71 percent to 2.40 Canadian dollars a share, Suncor Energy Inc. added 4.68 percent to 29.76 dollars a share, and Canadian Natural Resources Limited increased 8.38 percent to 24.82 dollars a share.

Depressed crude oil prices have weighed on the resource-linked Toronto market, including fears that Canadian banks will take a hit to profit in 2016, as more corporate loans sour, oil and gas capital raising dries up and job losses take a toll on banks' consumer arms.

The most influential drags on Thursday were the railways, with Canadian Pacific Railway Limited falling 0.88 percent to 149.84 Canadian dollars a share after it missed profit expectations on lower freight volumes.

The Calgary-based rail company said it plans to cut 1,000 jobs this year. Since 2012, the railway has cut 6,000 to 7,000 positions, including 1,200 last year alone.

Financial sector rebounded one day after Bank of Canada's announcement to maintain the benchmark rate at current levels of 0.5 percent. Manulife Financial Corporation went up 2.87 percent and Royal Bank of Canada was up 1.84 percent after British insurer Aviva said it would buy RBC's general insurance arm for 582 million Canadian dollars.

The Canadian dollar gained more than one U.S. cent on Thursday morning as oil prices recovered from their worst one-day plunge since September.

The main catalyst for the loonie was a bounce back in oil, which lost more than seven percent on Wednesday. The mood was much brighter for crude Thursday however, as the main oil contract was going up.

"There is still downward pressure on the oil price so it will keep the currency markets on edge for the foreseeable future," said Michael J Smith, a Toronto currency expert at AFEX, a global non-bank provider of foreign currency services.

The Canadian dollar closed higher at 0.7003 U.S. dollar, compared with Tuesday's closing rate of 0.6901 U.S. dollar. Enditem