A strong showing by financial issues boosted Toronto stocks to another record high close on Wednesday.

The S&P/TSX composite index climbed 54.01 points to 13,711.96.

The financial sector closed up almost 1%. Sun Life Financial was ahead 88¢ to $53.56, and Bank of Montreal climbed 85¢ to a 52-week high of $72.75.

The mining sector slipped 0.67%. Aur Resources fell 82¢ to $25.25.

The energy sector drifted 0.7% higher as crude oil prices fell despite data showing lower energy inventory levels in the United States.

The June contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange added e¢ to US$63.13 a barrel.

Canadian Natural Resources was down 52¢ at $66.75 and EnCana rose 93¢ to $61.68.

Canadian National Railway helped take the industrials sector up 1%. Its shares moved ahead $1.25 to $56.45 after Parliament approved legislation Tuesday night to force employees at the railway back to work.

Research in Motion shares shook off earlier losses to add $2.62 to $151.44. About half an hour after the market open RIM announced BlackBerry e-mail service had been restored to most subscribers after an outage that lasted about 14 hours.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite idex inched up 0.33 of a point to 3,335.19.

The Canadian dollar gained 0.19 of a cent to US88.66¢.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average also closed at a new record high. The Dow jumped 30.8 points to finish at 12,803.84.

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. was a bright spot after the bank reported a 55% jump in profits that far surpassed Wall Street’s expectations and its shares advanced US$1.89 to US$52.07.

The Nasdaq composite index lost 6.45 points in the wake of some earnings disappointments to 2,510.5 while the S&P 500 index moved 1.02 points higher to 1,472.5.