TORONTO _ The Toronto stock market advanced for a second session Wednesday as oil prices continued to plumb fresh five-year lows while traders looked for reassurance from the U.S. Federal Reserve's afternoon interest rate announcement.
The S&P/TSX composite index ran up 88.39 points to 13,949.91.
The Canadian dollar slipped 0.05 of a cent to 85.89 cents US ahead of the mid-afternoon release of the Fed's rate announcement. Traders hope the Fed will retain important language in that statement that says short-term rates will stay ultra-low ``for a considerable time.''
It's generally expected the Fed will move to hike rates sometime next year, around mid-2015. But a series of strong economic data points, including November's blowout employment report, have suggested the Fed could move to increase rates from near zero sooner than expected.
U.S. indexes were also higher as the Dow Jones industrials gained 93.41 points to 17,162.28, the Nasdaq was ahead 25.47 points to 4,573.3 and the S&P 500 index was ahead 13.41 points to 1,986.15.
The TSX registered a solid 156-point advance Tuesday as investors picked through stocks that have been beaten down in value during the course of a selloff that had left the TSX barely in positive territory for the year. The energy sector was the biggest beneficiary, rising six per cent. But gains also spread to other areas such as financials, which have also sold off on concerns about how falling oil prices have impacted the Canadian economy and the exposure of banks to high-cost producers that took in a lot of debt to finance expansion.
That hunt for cheaper stocks continued Wednesday as oil prices continued to head lower while the market continues to sort out a huge supply/demand imbalance that has cut prices by more than 50 per cent since summertime highs. The energy sector was up 2.4 per cent even as January crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell $1.16 to US$54.77.
Meanwhile, Husky Energy Inc. (TSX:HSE) is the latest energy company to announce it will be spending less. It says its 2015 capital budget will be $3.4 billion, about $1.7 billion less than it expects to spend this year on major projects. Its shares climbed 82 cents to $24.18.
The base metals group gained four per cent with March copper down two cents to US$2.83 a pound.
February bullion gained $3.70 to US$1,198 an ounce and the gold sector climbed 2.6 per cent.
All sectors were positive save the consumer discretionary and telecom sectors.
Traders also focused on Russia as the government looks at ways of easing the selling pressure on the ruble Wednesday amid fears the country may face a full-blown bank run.
The ruble has shed 15 per cent of its value this week despite Tuesday's surprise move by Russia's Central Bank to raise its benchmark interest rate to 17 per cent from 10.5 per cent, which was intended to make it more attractive for currency traders to hold onto their rubles. At one point on Tuesday, it was down 20 per cent.
After posting fresh losses early Wednesday, the ruble recovered some ground and stood at 64 rubles to the U.S. dollar.
The Russian economy has been hammered by the impact of low oil prices as well as the impact of Western sanctions imposed over Russia's involvement in Ukraine's crisis.