After a turbulent day for equities, Toronto’s benchmark index finished in positive territory on Tuesday despite more declines in commodity prices.

The S&P/TSX composite index finished at 8,835.73, up 40.28 points, or 0.46%.

Gains were led by the financials group, which rose 1% overall.

Shares of Manulife Financial Corp. recovered some of their losses from Monday’s session, gaining more than 6% on Tuesday to close at $22.36.

Bank of Nova Scotia sharers rose 3% to $37.17 and Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. gained 3.7% to $338.99.

Losses were in store for other financial players, including Power Corp., down 5.2% to $25.60 and CIBC, down 1.9% to $50.88.

Energy companies in Toronto rose 0.5% despite declining oil futures, which pushed farther below the US$55-a-barrel point. Crude for December delivery fell US$0.56 to close at US$54.39 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

EnCana Corp. shares rose 2.1% to $52.59 and Nexen Inc. gained 3.5% to $18.76.

Petro-Canada made up for some of the losses incurred Monday, gaining more than 6% to finish at $25.40.

Materials companies fell 1% throughout the day, dragged down by the continued erosion in commodity prices.

Gold for December delivery fell US$9.30, or 1.3%, to US$732.70 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The sub-gold index in Toronto fell 0.7%.

Magnesium and silicon producer Timminco Ltd. plummeted 22.3% to $4.95, just five months after the shares were trading above $30.00.

Teck Cominco Ltd.’s B-class shares tumbled another 7.8% to $6.12.

Still, the day was more positive than yesterday for some materials companies in Toronto. Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. shares rose more than 2% to $37.55 and Potash Corp. was up 1.8% to $86.10.

Shares of pipeline operator TransCanada Corp. fell nearly 5% to $32.85 after the company announced plans to issue roughly $1 billion in new shares for project financing.

The Canadian dollar pulled back by nearly half a cent against the U.S. greenback, to close at US81.31¢.

Junior companies on the S&P/TSX Venture composite index slipped 35.54 points, or 4.52%, to finish the day at 750.25.

South of the border, the main indexes also managed to swing into positive territory by Tuesday’s close.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 151.17 points, or 1.8%, to end at 8,424.75..

The Nasdaq composite index rose 1.22 points, or 0.1%, to close at 1,483.27, and the S&P 500 index finished at 859.12, up 8.37 points, or 1%.

Home Depot Inc., which trades on the New York Stock Exchange, gained 3.55% to US$20.71 after reporting a better than expected 31% drop in third quarter net income.

Citigroup Inc. shares shed another 6% to US$8.36 on the NYSE, adding to yesterday’s hefty losses on news of widespread job cuts.

IE