North American stocks surged Tuesday as corporate news spurred gains on both sides of the border.

In Toronto, the S&P/TSX composite index finished up 100.21, or 0.99%, to end 10,263.24

Volume was 223 million shares.

Nine of the 10 TSX main sub-groups were up for the day, with the energy sector enjoying a gain of 1.90%

Ultra Petroleum Corp. gained $2.80, or 8.44%, to finish $35.98, while Nexen Inc. lifted $1.56, or 3.77%, to close $42.90.

Light sweet crude for August delivery ended up 14¢ at US$57.46 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The consumer staples group ended up 0.60%

Shares of Metro Inc. climbed $3.75, or 13.64%, to $31.25 after the grocer announced it’s buying the A&P Canada supermarket chain in a cash and shares deal worth $1.7 billion.

Rival Sobeys Inc. fell $3.03, or 7.37%, to close $38.10, while Loblaw was down 83¢, or 1.14%, to close $71.97.

Shoppers Drug Mart Corp. reported its second-quarter profit gained more than 16% to $80 million. Nevertheless, its shares fell 35¢, or 0.84%, to $41.45.

Information technology stocks were up 1.34%. Research in Motion Inc. gained 67¢, or 0.94%, to close $71.61.

The Canadian dollar was down 0.13 of a cent at US82.03¢.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture Composite index finished up 10.08, or 0.59%, to close 1,728.02.

In New York, positive second-quarter earnings announcements cheered the markets.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 71.57 points, or 0.58%, to close 10,646.56; the Nasdaq composite index lifted 28.31, or 1.32%, to close 2,173.18; and the S&P 500 index gained 8.22, or 0.67%, to 1,229.35.

International Business Machines reported late Monday that it had shown a net profit of US$1.83 billion, beating analyst forecasts. IBM stock rose $1.92 to US$83.73.

Brokerage giant Merrill Lynch & Co. also saw its second-quarter profits rise 6% from a year ago to US$1.14 billion. Merrill shares lifted $1.32 to US$57.99.

Hewlett-Packard Co. announced it would cut 14,500 jobs, approximately a tenth of its workforce, to save nearly US$2 billion a year. Its shares fell 39¢ to US$24.53.