The Toronto Stock Exchange’s main index rose sharply on Monday, boosted by record commodity prices and gains in the financial and tech sectors.

The S&P/TSX composite index rallied 165.82 points, or 1.12%, at end at 14,944.28. Eight of the 10 main TSX sectors advanced.

The resource laden materials group climbed 1.7% as record high for corn prices pushed up shares in fertilizer companies Potash Corp of Saskatchewan and Agrium.

Potash Corp was up $3.55, or 1.5%, at $235.67, while Agrium rose $1.84, or 1.7%, to $108.30.

Toronto oil and gas shares added 0.2%, as oil prices hit a record high near $140 a barrel but then retreated to end lower as Saudi Arabia looked prepared to boost production.

Canadian Natural Resources gained 66¢, or 0.6%, at $104.75, and Canadian Oil Sands Trust rose $1.06, or 2%, to $53.80.

EnCana Corp. shares rose $1.51, or 1.6%, to $95.21 after the company said it had established a leading position in gas shale ventures in Canada and the United States.

The financial sector rose 1.3% as U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc posted a big quarterly loss as it had forecast last week.

CIBC was up $1.40, or 2.2%, at $64.85, and TD Bank gained 92¢, or 1.4%, to $68.77.

Among technology shares, Research in Motion soared $7.42, or 5.4%, to $144.21.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index slipped 3.33 points, or 0.13%, to end at 2,636.07.

The Canadian dollar closed at US97.80¢, up from Friday’s close of US97.16¢.

In New York, technology stocks rose as blue-chip stocks slipped, weighed by broker downgrades of Dow components Verizon Communications and AT&T.

But those declines were limited by a rebound of more than 5% the shares of investment bank Lehman Brothers after its CEO Richard Fuld took full responsibility for the company’s first-ever quarterly loss of US$2.8 billion.

The Dow Jones industrial average I slipped 38.27 points, or 0.31%, to 12,269.08. The S&P 500 edged up 0.11 of a point, or 0.01%, to 1,360.14.

But the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index gained 20.28 points, or 0.83%, to 2,474.78.