Toronto stocks powered higher Monday on a blockbuster takeover bid in the gold sector and on encouraging economic news.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 71.02, or 0.69%, to 10,383.32. The senior exchange lost 5.7% during in October.

Volume was 230 million shares.

Seven of the 10 TSX main sub-groups were up, with the materials sector up 1.55%.

Barrick Gold Corp. has offered US$9.2 billion in stock and cash for Placer Dome Inc. to create what it says would be the world’s largest gold mining company. Barrick already has a side deal with Goldcorp to sell Placer Dome’s Ontario gold assets and a Chilean silver mine interest for US$1.35 billion to Goldcorp if the Placer Dome acquisition succeeds.

Barrick fell $1.95, or 7.17%, to $25.25, Placer Dome gained $3.84, or 19.70%, to $23.33 and Goldcorp gained 90¢, or 3.94%, to $23.76.

Gold futures lost $7.90 to close US$466.90 an ounce.

Light sweet crude for December fell $1.46 to settle at US$59.76 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest finish since late July.

Suncor Energy Inc. fell 15¢, or 0.28%, to $53.63.

Precision Drilling shareholders voted in favour of converting the firm into an income trust. Its shares increased $1.30, or 2.45%, to $54.30.

The financials sector zoomed ahead 1.15%.

CI Financial is offering $254-million to buy Clarington Corp. CI gained 18¢, or 0.84%, to $21.50, while Clarington soared forward $4.61, or 57.62%, to $12.61.

Statistics Canada reported the economy grew 0.5% in August after a 0.2% advance in July.

The Canadian dollar was off 0.24 of a cent at US84.66¢.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index finished down 2.97, or 0.15%, 1,993.56.

In New York, lower oil prices spurred the market ahead.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 37.30 points to 10,440.07, the S&P 500 Index rose 8.60 points to 1,207.01 while the Nasdaq composite index gained 30.42 points to 2,120.30.

In U.S. economic news. consumer spending rose by 0.5% in September. Investors are anticipating the U.S. Federal Reserve will raise rates a quarter-point tomorrow, but hope that the central bank will soon end its streak of rate increases.

For October, the Dow Jones lost 1.2%, the Nasdaq 1.5% and the S&P 500 1.8%.