The Canadian Press

The Toronto stock market closed higher Tuesday in a broad-based advance led by tech and financial stocks, as investors felt a bit better about the U.S. economy.

The S&P/TSX composite index gained 77.37 points to 12,044.54. The TSX Venture Exchange was up 6.77 points at 1,561.36.

Momentum picked up during the afternoon as investors put the best face on the latest U.S. housing resale data.

The U.S. National Association of Realtors said that sales of previously occupied homes dropped 0.6 per cent in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.02 million, an improvement from the one per cent drop that had been forecast.

The report was typical of recent U.S. economic numbers that have been somewhat better than expected but still point to a weak economy

The TSX tech component was up 1.46 per cent. Research In Motion Ltd. (TSX:RIM) was ahead $1.63 at $76.75 while Celestica (TSX:CLS) climbed 50 cents to $11.41.

The financial sector was ahead 0.79 per cent with Bank of Montreal (TSX:BMO) up 75 cents at $62.31 while Scotiabank (TSX:S) gained 59 cents to $51.29.

Mining stocks also registered strong gains amid major dealmaking in the sector.

Quadra Mining Ltd. (TSX:QUA) and FNX Mining Company Inc. (TSX:FNX) plan what they call a “merger of equals.” The companies say that the US$1.5-billion stock swap will create a large, diversified copper miner with the cash to expand through future acquisition. The companies have major holdings in Ontario, the United States and Chile.

“It gives confidence to investors that mining executives have confidence in the future, not only in terms of economic activity that commodity prices aren’t going to collapse,” said Ian Nakamoto, director of research at MacDougall, MacDougall and MacTier.

“No company would enter into a merger of any sort unless they felt the other company was good and economic prospects were relatively good,” Nakamoto said.

Quadra shares declined 40 cents to $16.98 while FNX shares were ahead 29 cents at $15.14.

Hopes that the deal is the beginning of another wave of mergers in the Canadian mining sector helped push the TSX base metals component ahead 2.3 per cent even as May copper was unchanged at US$3.38 a pound. HudBay Minerals (TSX:HBM) climbed 53 cents to C$13.80.

The energy sector strengthened as oil prices reversed direction to head higher, up 0.63 per cent as the May crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange gained 31 cents to US$81.91 a barrel. Suncor Energy (TSX:SU) advanced 20 cents to C$31.40 while Encana Corp. (TSX:ECA) rose 39 cents to C$31.49.

Oil and metal prices along with the loonie have lost ground in recent days as worries about Greece’s ability to pay down its huge debt have punished the euro and attracted traders to the relative safe haven status of the U.S. dollar.

The gold sector was slightly lower even as the April bullion contract on the Nymex gained $4.20 to US$1,103.70 an ounce. Barrick Gold Corp. (TSX:ABX) faded 65 cents to C$39.44.

The Canadian dollar climbed 0.27 of a cent to US98.42 cents as Statistics Canada reported that the composite leading indicator index, a snapshot of future economic activity, rose 0.8 per cent in February. Nine of 10 components rose, led by household demand, while manufacturing continued to recover.

The Dow Jones industrial average ran ahead 102.94 points to 10,888.83. The Nasdaq composite index advanced 19.84 points to 2,415.24 while the S&P 500 index was up 8.36 points at 1,174.17.

Carnival Corp., which owns the Carnival, Princess and Holland America cruise lines, also helped investor sentiment after it reported that quarterly profit fell 33 per cent, dragged down as fuel prices climbed. But revenue crept up eight per cent. Both figures were better than forecast and Carnival shares advanced 90 cents to US$38.81.

Shares prices in Canada’s major cable and satellite TV providers were little changed after the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission said Canada’s struggling broadcasters can negotiate a fee for their signals. However, the CRTC said it wants the Federal Court of Appeal to review the new system before it kicks in.

Rogers Inc. (TSX:RCI.B) slipped two cents to $35.33, Shaw Communications (TSX:SJR.B) was ahead nine cents at $20.11 while BCE Inc. (TSX:BCE) was 16 cents higher at $30.66.

In other corporate news, the Chinese government has slammed Google’s partial withdrawal from the Chinese market, saying that the search engine violated commitments it made to abide by censorship rules when it entered the market in 2006.

@page_break@Google said Monday that its Chinese search engine, google.cn, would automatically redirect queries to its service in Hong Kong, where Google is not legally required to censor searches. Google shares backed off $8.50 to US$549.