Gold shares fueled Toronto markets Wednesday morning, while U.S. markets got a boost from decent earnings, a handful of mergers and billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian’s bid to substantially add to his stake in General Motors Corp.

At midday, Toronto’s S&P/TSX composite index was up 72.92 points or 0.78% at 9443.89 after falling 59 points on Tuesday. The TSX Venture Exchange was unchanged, up 0.71 of a point to 1,666.71.

On Wall Street, the blue-chip Dow industrials were 68.50 points or 0.67% higher at 10325.45. The Nasdaq composite added 13.38 points or 0.69% to 1946.45 and the S&P 500 index was up 6.85 points or 0.59% to 1168.02.

The Canadian dollar was up 0.09 of a cent to US79.96¢.

In Toronto, the S&P/TSX was led by gold shares, which increased 2.11% as a group as the price of bullion jumped. Gold was trading at US$426.70 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up US2.80.

Only two of the TSX indices — real estate and consumer staples — were in the red.

The TSX energy group was ahead by 1.10% as the price of light sweet crude oil for June added 3¢ at US$49.53 US a barrel on the Nymex.

In New York, shares of GM soared $4.36 or 15.7% to US$32.13 after Kerkorian’s Tracinda Corp. offered to pay about US$870 million for a nearly 5% stake in the automaker, a deal that would boost the billionaire’s stake in GM to nearly 9 percent. Kerkorian is seeking to purchase 28 million shares at $31 apiece.

Overseas, Japanese financial markets were closed Tuesday for Constitution Day, a national holiday. Trading will resume on Friday after the annual “golden week” holidays. In Europe, France’s CAC-40 rose 0.27%, Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.09% and Germany’s DAX index slipped 0.04%.