North American stocks rallied strongly Thursday, erasing some part of the losses they’ve absorbed over the last five weeks, as investors rushed back into the market, buoyed by encouraging comments from U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke.

The S&P/TSX composite index shot up 252.48 points, or 2.30%, to 11,213.16.

All 10 TSX main sub-groups were up, with the energy index gaining 3.88%.

Light, sweet crude for July delivery advanced 36¢ to US$69.50 a barrel.

EnCana Corp. gained $2.22, or 4.25%, $54.49.

The gold index shot up 5.92%. Gold for August delivery ended up $3.80 at US$570.30.

Goldcorp Inc. gained $1.66, or 5.85%, to $30.06.

Financial stocks gained 0.48%, and the information technology group moved up 2.74%.

The Canadian dollar moved up 0.09 of a cent to US89.86¢.

The S&P/TSX Venture composite index zoomed ahead 135.72 points, or 5.62%, to 2,551.29.

In New York, markets continued to rebound from recent sell-offs, as all three major indexes enjoyed their biggest one-day gains since March 2003. The Fed chairman indicated in a speech that he felt higher energy prices were manageable in terms of their impact on the economy.

The Dow Jones industrials average rose 198.27 points to 11,015.19, its second triple-digit gain in two days.

The Nasdaq composite index rose 58.15 points to 2,144.14 and the S&P 500 gained 26.12 points to 1,256.16.