Toronto stocks finished sharply higher Wednesday, as resource stocks were pulled ahead by rising oil and gold prices.

The S&P/TSX composite index finished up 98.14 points, or 0.92%, to 10,727.04.

Volume on the senior exchange was 288 million shares.

Six of the 10 TSX main sub-groups were up, with the energy sector gaining 3.60% and the materials sector up 1.21%.

Crude oil futures moved up 90¢ to settle at US$57.88 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on lower than expected U.S. inventory reports.

EnCana Corp. gained $2.43, or 4.73% to $53.85.

Canadian Natural Resources rose added $2.10, or 3.86%, to $56.45.

The benchmark December contract for gold ended up $10 at US$479.10 an ounce.

Eldorado Gold Corp. gained 17¢, or 4.05%, to $4.37 on heavy trading.

The health care sector was the biggest decliner, losing 1.68%. Biovail lost $1.60, or 3.04%, to $24.91 on news the company was spinning off its non-patent pharmaceutical division into an income trust.

The technology group shed 1.6%, dragged down by Research In Motion Ltd., which lost $3.07, or 3.82%, to $77.25.

Shares of the Blackberry e-mail device maker fell after mobile giant Nokia said it will buy wireless messaging and e-mail management firm Intellisync about US$430 million to boost its position in the corporate mobile e-mail market.

Connors Brothers Income Fund lost 13% of its value, falling $1.46 to $9.63 after it said it was considering reducing its distributions by 8% to 10% because of high costs. The Fund owns Clover Leaf Seafoods and Bumble Bee Foods.

The Canadian dollar slipped 0.09 cents to US83.79¢.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index finished up 5.23, or 0.26%, to 2,001.98.

In New York, higher energy prices largely offset positive economic data.

The Dow Jones industrial index fell 11.68, or 0.11%, to 10,674.76. The S&P 500 rose 2.20, or 0.18%, to 1,231.21, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 1.19, or 0.05%, to 2,187.93.

The U.S. Labor Department reported the consumer price index edged up 0.2% in October, easing the market’s inflation worries.