Toronto stocks were up Thursday, buoyed by a rise in the materials sector and financials.

The S&P/TSX composite index finished up 33.91, or 0.31%, to 10,996.

Volume on the senior exchange was 297 million shares.

Eight of the 10 TSX main sub-groups were up on the day.

The Canadian dollar closed at US84.40 cents, 0.29 of a cent after the U.S. dollar stengthened against most foreign currencies.

Light, sweet crude for October deivery closed down 34 U.S. cents to setle at US$64.75 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.The energy sector nudged ahead 0.03%.

EnCana Corp. lost 42 cents, or 0.70%, to $59.80.

Ivanhoe Energy Inc. was up 4 cent, or 1.98%, to $2.06 after the company put the first well from a California gas field discovery onto production.

The materials sector rose 0.63%

Canico Resource Corp. shot up $5.10, or 34.81%, to $19.75 on news Brazil’s Companhia Vale do Rio Doce had offered $725 million for the Vancouver-based mining company.

Gold for December delivery rose US$5.60 to close at US$459.30 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Bema Gold Corp. lifted 12 cents, or 3.77%, to $3.30, while Kinross Gold was up 26 cents, or 2.95%, to $9.08.

The financials group was up 0.52%

Brascan Corp. announced its re-naming itself Brookfield Asset Management Inc. and will buy back US$500 million worth of shares. Its stock advanced 16 cents, or 0.33%, to $49.29.

The junior S&P/TSX venture exchange finished up 14.41, or 0.72%, to 2,025.19.

In New York, markets were essentially flat as investors stayed quiet ahead of next week¹s U.S. Federal Reserve announcement on rates.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 13.85, or 0.13%, to 10,558.75. The S&P500 index rose 0.57, or 0.05%, to 1,227.73, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 3.18, or 0.15% to 2,146.15.

In economic news, U.S. consumer inflation was up 0.5% in August, largely due to rising energy prices.

The U.S. Labor Department reported that 68,000 people lost their jobs due to hurricane Katrina and filed for unemployment benefits last week.