Strength in commodities pulled the resource-heavy Toronto Stock Exchange higher by more than 100 points on Thursday.

The S&P/TSX composite index rose 116.13 points, or 1.1%, to close at 10,714.11.

The energy group jumped 1.9% as oil futures rose for a third consecutive day. July crude futures contract rose US$1.35, or 1.9%, to end at US$72.68 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Shares of Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. added $1.50, or 2.3%, to close at $66.00.

Canadian Oil Sands Trust units rose 3.1% to $29.50 and Imperial Oil Ltd. advanced 2% to $46.70.

Also higher was Addax Petroleum Corp., up $1.91, or 4.5%, to $43.99.

The materials group rose 0.7% on Thursday, while the sub-gold index dipped 0.8%. On the Comex division of the New York mercantile Exchange, gold for August delivery ended at US$962 an ounce, up US$7.30, or 0.8%.

Shares of First Quantum Minerals Ltd. surged 5.4% to $59.04 and Goldcorp Inc. gained 1% to $39.98.

Others retreated, including Barrick Gold Corp., down 1.4% to $38.31, and Yamana Gold Inc., down 2.4% to $10.97.

Financial stocks rose 1.1%.

Shares of Manulife Financial Corp. rose 2.8% to $24.82 and Sun Life Financial Inc. jumped 3.8% to $31.44.

Also higher was Power Corp., up $0.86, or 3.4%, to $26.34.

Lower for the day was TMX Group Inc., down 2.8% to $33.10.

In other news, Transcontinental Inc., the parent company of Investment Executive said it will lay off another 250 workers on top of some 1,500 job cuts announced earlier this year.

The announcement came as the Montreal-based company reported a huge loss of $144.3 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2009, as restructuring and other charges reversed a net profit of $36.9 million for the same year-ago period.

Transcontinental A shares rose 2¢ to close at $9.16.

Junior stocks also advanced on Thursday, sending the Venture index up 5.93 points, or 0.5%, to 1,148.32.

The Canadian dollar gained nearly half a cent on Thursday, to close at US90.65¢.

In New York, U.S. stock markets also finished with gains as investors digested newly released economic data. The Commerce Department announced that retail sales increased by 0.5% last month, in line with economist expectations, and the Labour Department said that the number of newly laid-off Americans requesting unemployment insurance fell for the third time in the past four weeks to 601,000 last week.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 31.9 points, or 0.4%, to finish at 8,770.92.

The S&P 500 index rose 5.74 points, or 0.6%, to 944.89, its highest level since early November.

The Nasdaq composite index gained 9.29 points, or 0.5%, to 1,862.37.

IE