Canadian stock market fueled by rising gold price

The Canadian stock market closed at a seven-week high on Monday as a jump in the gold price drove mining stocks up. The Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index rose 73.25 points, or 0.58 percent, to close at 12758.38, posting its fourth session of gains in a row. The bullion price jumped more than 3 percent Monday, posting its biggest one day move upward in more than a year, helped by reduced concern that the Fed will soon taper its stimulus program. The metals and mining sector, boosted by soaring gold stocks, climbed 1.5 percent. Goldcorp Inc shot up 5.8 percent to 29.97 Canadian dollars per share and had the biggest positive influence on the index. Barrick Gold Corp jumped 6.4 percent to 18.25 Canadian dollars. Shares of energy companies climbed 0.2 percent. Enbridge Inc added 0.5 percent to 46.79 Canadian dollars, while Suncor Energy rose 0.3 percent to 33.09 Canadian dollars. The key financial sector gained 0.5 percent. Royal Bank of Canada, the country's biggest lender, was up 0.9 percent at 65.66 Canadian dollars. The telecom sector declined as Canada's largest communication operator BCE Inc. was 2.3 percent lower to 42.30 Canadian dollars per share while Rogers Communications fell to 41.15 Canadian dollars. At closing, the Canadian dollar moved up at 0.9676 U.S. dollars at 5 p.m. local time (2100 GMT), compared with 0.9646 U.S. dollars last Friday.