A rebound in oil prices helped Toronto stocks finish in the black Wednesday, but dampened investor enthusiasm on U.S. markets.

At close, Toronto Stock Exchange S&P/TSX composite index was up 33.09 points, or 0.4% to 8410.12 on a volume of 248 million shares. The TSX Venture exchange closed 8.55 points or 0.56% higher at 1533.34.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 5.46 points or 0.05% to 10168.46. The Nasdaq composite index gained 12.31 points or 0.67% at 1850.41, while the S&P 500 index added 1.67 points or 0.15% at 1105.91.

The Canadian dollar was up 0.35 of a cent to US76.51¢.

Crude futures closed nearly 5% higher for the session, to log their biggest one-day gain in three months with investors concerned about a big drop in last week’s U.S. crude supplies. October crude closed at US$44 a barrel, a one-week high, up US$1.88 for the session. Prices haven’t climbed that much in a single day since June 1, when prices ended with a 6.1% climb.

Meanwhile, the American Petroleum Institute and the Energy Department reported respective declines of 8.1 million and 4.2 million barrels in weekly U.S. supplies.

The rise in prices pushed the TSX energy group up 1.69% with more than 2% jumps by a string of big names, including Suncor Energy, Precision Drilling, Petro-Canada, Husky Energy and Encana Corp.

Petro-Canada shares rose $1.29, or 2.1% to $62.64 on plans for a joint venture with TransCanada Corp. to build a $660-million liquefied natural gas plant in Quebec to help bolster declining North American gas supplies. TransCanada was up 44¢ or 1.6% to $27.93.

Elsewhere on the TSX, the tech sector fell 0.20%, led by Open Text Corp., which lost $6.39 or 22.69% to $21.83 on volume of about 2.8 million shares after it reported a weaker profit and warned its current quarter will come in below market expectations. Offsetting that was Nortel Networks Corp., which gained 12¢ or 2.41% to $5.09 with more than 9.1 million shares trading hands.

Financial stocks, gold and consumer discretionary shares also were off.

Goldcorp Inc. fell 33¢ or 1.95% to $16.61 after Rob McEwen announced Wednesday his intention to step down as chief executive of one the company after 18 years in the top job.

In the U.S., stocks were mixed as a lower reading on manufacturing activity and rising oil prices chilled an early spate of bargain hunting, sending blue chips lower. Technology shares made a modest advance despite brokerage downgrades of two semiconductor companies.

With trading light, the markets were slow to react to the August reading of the Institute of Supply Management’s manufacturing index, which declined to 59.0 in August, lower than the 59.8 expected on Wall Street.

Underscoring how skittish investors are feeling in the current market, the major indices sank at midday on reports of a possible terror attack in Washington, D.C. The market stabilized after it became clear the incident stemmed from the accidental release of pepper spray in a Capital Hill restaurant, but Wall Street never fully regained its earlier momentum.