Toronto stocks closed higher Wednesday getting a boost from energy stocks and mining issues. The S&P/TSX composite index jumped 74.88 points or 0.85% to 8,871.93 on a volume of 286 million shares.

Eight of the TSX’s 10 sectors closed higher. Energy stocks led the way up 1.82%. Energy stocks climbed as the November delivery contract for light sweet crude closed at a new record higher of US$52.02 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, a gain of 93¢ from Tuesday.

The jump in the price of crude followed the release of the weekly U.S. crude inventory data, which showed a smaller-than-expected rise in stocks.

Petro-Canada shares rose $2.24, or 3.3%, to $69.49, while Encana jumped 73¢, or 1.2%, to $61.53.

There were gains in the heavily weighted financial services group, up 0.50%, as Bank of Nova Scotia climbed 15¢, or 0.40%, to $37.40.

Mining stocks were also stronger as copper and aluminum futures hit nine-year highs in London, pushing up the material’s group 1.09%.

Teck Cominco jumped $1.12, or 4%, to $28.62, and Alcan was $1.03 higher, or 1.68%, at $61.25.

Shares of Open Text fell 21%, a day after the company cut its earnings forecast for the first quarter. Open Text shares were off $5.40 at $20.

Air Canada and WestJet both reported higher traffic and passenger loads in September.

Air Canada said it flew 9.5% more passenger miles last month than it did in September of 2003. Its load factor rose to 79.2% – a record for September.

Shares of ACE Aviation, Air Canada’s parent, were off $1.24 to $22.55; Westjet shares climbed 6¢ to $13.41.

Cognos shares were rattled by two announcements, one from the company and one from the U.S. government. The U.S. Justice Department said Andrew Cahill, currently Cognos senior vp of operations for the Americas, has been indicted in connection with events at Peregrine Systems that resulted in financial restatements for the period April 1999 through the end of December 2001. Cahill was employed as a senior executive at Peregrine before joining Cognos in May 2004. Cognos has reassigned Cahill to other duties within the organization.

Cognos also said it will buy back up to 4.5 million of its common shares over the next year. The repurchase program represents about 5% of the company’s 90.6 million common shares currently outstanding. Cognos shares fell 81¢ or 1.73% to $46.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index was up 11.00 points at 1,669.91.

On Wall Street, U.S. stocks staged a late-day rally to end higher, with the Nasdaq climbing for the seventh straight session, as investor appetite for bagains trumped concern over a new high for oil.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended up 62.24 points or 0.61% at 10,239.92, while the S&P 500 rose 7.57 points or 0.67% to 1,142.05.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index added 15.53 points or 0.79% to end the session at 1,971.03.