Toronto stocks shook off early losses to finish higher on Tuesday. The S&P/TSX composite index climbed 23.44 points to close at 8,405.10.

Eight of the TSX’s 10 subgroups closed higher, led by gains of more than 1% in the tech, health-care and telecoms sectors.

Information technology stocks advanced 1.97% as Sierra Wireless gained $1.40 to $22.50. ATI Technologies rose 73¢ to $21.33, while bellwether Nortel Networks rose18¢ to $6.12.

The health-care group rose 1.59% led by Biovail’s 57¢ rise to $29.22.

Energy stocks rose 0.5% as natural gas surged US25¢ to US$7.08 per million BTUs. Cold weather swept into the big gas-consuming areas of the U.S. EnCana gained 75 cents to $53.45.

The heavily weighted financial index gained 0.4%. BMO rose 71¢ to $54.31; Manulife Financial climbed 40¢ to $40.42.

The materials group was down 1.3%, while consumer staples fell 0.39%.

Materials were weighed down by gold-mining stocks, which slipped 1.84%.

The S&P/TSX composite index climbed 23.44 points to close at 8,405.10.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index added 1.52 points to finish at 1,782.38.

On Wall Street, U.S stocks closed mixed as the technology sector outperformed the broader market for the second consecutive session.

The Dow Jones industrial average recouped most of its early losses late afternoon. It closed down 5.41 points at 10,538.66, well off its intraday low of 10,499.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 10.01 points to 2,057.37. The broader S&P 500 finished up 1.46 at 1,123.57.

Markets were negative most of the day after a report said the U.S. services sector weakened in December.

The U.S. Institute for Supply Management said its non-manufacturing index fell to 58.6 in December from 60.1 in November. Observers had been expecting the index to rise to 61. Any reading over 50 denotes expansion.

Another economic report showed that factory orders in the U.S. fell 1.4% in November, which wasn’t quite as bad as expected.

The Canadian dollar slipped 0.22¢ to US77.77¢, as the U.S. dollar sank to yet another all-time low against the euro.