TSX hits one-month high as resource shares soar

By John Tilak

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index jumped to its highest level in a month on Friday as shares of natural resource producers rebounded with commodity prices, while strong Canadian jobs data boosted overall sentiment.

Canada unexpectedly added 43,100 jobs in October and the unemployment rate dropped to a near six-year low of 6.5 percent.

South of the border, it was a mixed picture as data showed that U.S. jobs growth missed expectations in October, but the unemployment rate dropped to a six-year low.

The benchmark TSX index has been recovering from the equity market pullback last month. It recorded its third straight daily gain on Friday and was up for a fourth consecutive week.

"It looks like we’ve absorbed that sharp selloff in October and things are slowly getting back to normal," said Elvis Picardo, strategist and vice president of research at Global Securities in Vancouver.

“There’s no fundamental news to account for the big snapback in energy and materials shares except for the fact that they were very sharply sold off,” he added. “So you’re seeing good buying interest coming in at these levels.”

The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index (.GSPTSE) was up 127.45 points, or 0.88 percent, at 14,690.83. Six of the 10 main sectors on the index were in the red, however.

Shares of energy producers jumped 2.7 percent. In the group, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd (Toronto:CNQ.TO - News) gained 2.8 percent to C$40.87, and Suncor Energy Inc (Toronto:SU.TO - News) was up 1.8 percent at C$39.19.

The gold-mining sector advanced 7.3 percent, reflecting stronger bullion prices. Barrick Gold Corp (Toronto:ABX.TO - News) added 6.3 percent to C$13.79, and Goldcorp Inc (Toronto:G.TO - News) rose 6.9 percent to C$22.68.

Shares of BlackBerry Ltd (Toronto:BB.TO - News) rose 1.6 percent after a major Canadian pension fund disclosed that it had significantly raised its holding in the company, a sign of belief in the smartphone maker's turnaround.

The Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board said in a regulatory filing that it had boosted its stake in BlackBerry to 8.23 million shares in the third quarter, giving the fund a 1.56 percent stake. The fund had owned 439,500 shares in the company as of the end of the second quarter.

Shares of Cameco Corp (Toronto:CCO.TO - News) surged 11 percent to C$21.24, rising with other uranium producers such as Paladin Energy (Toronto:PDN.TO - News), UR-Energy (Toronto:URE.TO - News) and Uranerz Energy Corp (Toronto:URZ.TO - News), after Japan moved closer to restarting two nuclear reactors.

Japan's nuclear-power industry has been stalled for more than three years after the Fukushima disaster led to the shutdown of its fleet of reactors.

(With reporting by Euan Rocha in Toronto and Rod Nickel in Winnipeg; Editing by James Dalgleish and Peter Galloway)