Toronto stocks shot higher on Friday as energy shares rebounded while Biovail Corp led health-care issues with a massive boost from US approval of its once-daily painkiller.
The Toronto Stock Exchange S&P/TSX composite index rose 120.97 points, or 1.12 percent, to 10,898.20. For the week, the key index rose 1.17 percent.
"The action continues to be dominated by the energy producers, but we also got some participation from other sectors as well," said Elvis Picardo, chief market strategist at Global Securities Corp.
"Biovail is one of the biggest weights in the health-care index, so they had some good news for a change and that really helped the stock and that particular sector."
The health-care sector jumped a market-leading 6 percent, while the energy group closed a distant second with a 2 percent gain. All 10 of the TSX's main subindexes ended higher.
Biovail stock soared C$5.15, or 24 percent, to C$26.61 and was one of the key drivers behind the market's gain, after gaining final US Food and Drug Administration approval for its once-daily Tramadol ER painkiller.
Energy shares rebounded as refineries in the US Gulf of Mexico recovered less quickly than expected from Hurricane Katrina, which helped halt a four-session losing skid for the energy group. EnCana Corp shares, the main contributor to the market's rise, ended up C$1.36, or 2 percent, at C$59.50, while Suncor Energy rose C$2.25, or 3 percent, to C$70.90.
Market momentum was strongly positive as 894 issues advanced and 541 declined on a volume of 245 million shares valued at C$3.99 billion.
The blue-chip S&PTSX 60 index rose 7.45 points, or 1.23 percent, to 611.33.
US markets also closed higher, helped largely by expectations that the Federal Reserve may pause this year in its campaign to hike interest rates due to economic damage caused by the hurricane.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 82.63 points, or 0.78 percent, to 10,678.56, while the Nasdaq composite index gained 9.48 points, or 0.44 percent, to 2,175.51.
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