Toronto stocks finished ahead on Wednesday as strong gains in the information technology, energy and materials sectors offset losses in financials and consumer staples. The S&P/TSX composite index was up 46.86, or 0.49%, to finish at 9,654.16.

Volume on the day was 258,860 shares.

Eight of the 10 main TSX groups were up, including IT, up 2.68%, energy, up 1.44%, and materials, which advanced 1.77%. The heavily weighted financials sector dropped by 0.62% and consumer staples were down 1.02%.

The price of oil spiked $2.63, or 5.1%, to US$54.60 a barrel, amid concerns over supply.

News that a consortium led by Brookfield Properties Corp., a subsidiary of Brascan Corp., planned to acquire both O&Y Real Estate Investment Trust and O&Y Properties Corp. for approximately $2 billion affected all stocks involved.

Brascan dropped 50¢ at $47.90, a decrease of 1.03%; Brookfield finished up 10¢ at $26.35, an increase of 0.38%

Meanwhile, O&Y REIT lost 72¢, or 4.74%, to close at $15.40 and O&Y Properties lost 49¢, or 3.67%, to finish at $12.85.

The consortium, which includes the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, reported it is paying $15.50 per unit in cash for O&Y REIT and $13 per share in cash for O&Y Properties.

Bombardier shares were up 11¢, an increase of 4.56%, to finish at $2.52. The company reported a $55 million first quarter profit after posting a $174 million loss in the same quarter last year.

Over 30 million shares of Nortel were traded, as the telecom finished up 30¢, or 9.4%, at $3.49. The company reported a first-quarter loss of US$49 million, down from US$59 million a year ago, and an increase in revenue of 3.8% to US$2.54 billion.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index advanced 14.02 points, or 0.85%, to 1,664.40.

The Canadian dollar was up 0.44 of cent at US80.11¢.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average close up 81.58 points, or at 10,549.06.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite gained 19.64, or 0.95%, to 2,087.86, while the broad-based S&P 500 index moved up 10.72, or 0.90%, to 1,202.22.