Canadian stock market up on positive China, Europe economic data

TORONTO, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- The Canadian stock market closed higher Thursday, with resource stocks leading gains on positive economic data from China and Europe.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index jumped 101.27 points, or 0.81 percent, to 12674.35.

Although investors remained jittery as the Fed's minutes released on Wednesday gave no clear timing of plans to scale back its bond purchasing program, market sentiment improved Thursday after a survey showed that China's economic recovery is picking up pace.

China's Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), a gauge of business activity, rose to 50.1 points in August from last month's 47.7. Meanwhile, the monthly index for the 17-country Eurozone rose to 51.7 in August from 50.4 of June.

The upbeat economic data pushed up oil and metal prices, and boosted resource stocks on the Canadian market.

Mining and metals stocks increased almost 5 percent, recovering some of earlier heavy losses. Diversified miner Teck Resources grew 4 percent to 27.33 Canadian dollars (25.96 U.S. dollars) per share.

The energy sector rose nearly 1 percent as the October crude oil contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange climbed 1.24 U.S. dollars to 105.09 U.S. dollars a barrel. Suncor Energy was up 1.52 percent to 35.38 Canadian dollars (33.61 U.S. dollars) per share.

Meanwhile, the industrials sector was up 1.6 percent with transport giant Bombardier Inc. climbing 2.8 percent to 4.7 Canadian dollars (4.47 U.S. dollars) a share.

The financial sector increased 0.54 percent with Manulife Financial Corporation up by 2.2 percent to 17.49 Canadian dollars (16.62 U.S. dollars).

At closing, the Canadian dollar continued to close down at 0. 9509 U.S. dollars at 5 p.m. local time (2100 GMT), compared with 0. 9546 U.S. dollars on Wednesday.

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