Toronto stocks rallied Wednesday, as the energy sector continued to roar, though oil prices eased off yesterday’s record-high, and investors took in encouraging economic news.

The S&P/TSX composite index finished up 95.88, or 0.91%, to 10,668.94.

Volume on the senior exchange was 265 million shares.

Eight of the 10 TSX main sub-groups ended higher on the day, with the energy group, up 2.27%, leading the way yet again.

October crude ended down 1.3% to settle at US$68.94 a barrel, off yesterday’s close of US$69.81, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The White House agreed Wednesday to release oil from emergency stockpiles, as Gulf Coast refineries remained out of commission, knocked out by hurricane Katrina.

Petro-Canada gained $1.50, or 3.23%, to $48.00, while EnCana leapt $2.01, or 3.58%, to $58.21.

The financial sector ended essentially flat, off a meagre 0.05%.

Bank of Nova Scotia dropped 12¢, or 0.29%, to $40.90 after releasing a strong third-quarter report yesterday. Manulife Financial gained 64¢, or 064%, to close $60.42.

The consumer discretionary group lifted 0.51%

JPMorgan Chase & Co. announced it is buying Sears Canada’s credit card business, consisting of 10 million card customers, for $2.2 billion. Shares in the retailer spiked $5.85, or 24.22%, to $30.00.

CanWest Global Communications lost 25¢, or 1.62%, to $15.15 after a media report said the company will spin off its newspaper assets into an income trust.

Sporting goods retailer Forzani Group Ltd. reported a second-quarter net loss of $2.3 million. Its shares fell 10¢, or 0.79%, to $12.60.

The materials sector improved 0.87%, while the gold group lifted 1.84%.

Shares in methanol producer Methanex Corp. were down 5¢, or 0.28%, to $17.95 after it announced high prices for natural gas is forcing it to close its plant in northern B.C.in early 2006.

Statistics Canada says the Canadian economy grew at an annualized rate of 3.2% in the second quarter, compared to 2.1 % in the first.

The Canadian dollar closed up 0.74 of cent at US84.19¢.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index finished up 9.68 points, or 0.51%, to 1,921.93.

In New York, U.S. stocks rose on as energy companies gained on surging gasoline prices, and investors shelled out for companies expected to profit from reconstruction of the storm-stricken U.S. Gulf Coast.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 68.78 points to 10,481.60, the Nasdaq composite index climbed 22.33 points to 2,152.09 while the S&P 500 index rose 11.92 points to 1,220.33.

For the month of August, both the Dow and the Nasdaq fell 1.5%, while the S&P 500 dropped 1.1%.