IANS

Toronto, Aug 5: Canadian markets crossed the 11,000-point mark Tuesday for the first time in 2009.

The last time the composite index on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) stood at this mark was in October 2008.

After sinking to the lowest level of almost 7,500 points in March this year, the markets have made major gains to recoup some of the losses from peaks of June 2008.

The Canadian markets had crossed the 15,000 mark for the first in their 150-year history in June 2008.

But as the global meltdown hit Canada also, the TSX index went into a free fall, sinking to 7,566 points last March.

The rising commodity and oil prices pushed the index above 11,000 Tuesday, gaining 230.95 points to close at 11,018.10.

The Toronto rally was in lock-step with surge on the New York Stock Exchange which was buoyed by positive news from the banking, housing and manufacturing sectors.

On the NYSE, the S&P and the Nasdaq crossed the 1,000 mark and 2,000 mark respectively for the first time since October last year, spurred by reports of 3.5 percent jump in home sales in June.

The energy sector was up three percent on the Toronto Stock Exchange which is the world's largest energy market with over 400 global oil and gas companies traded on it. The base metal sector also up 3.7 percent.

Canada's largest mining company Teck Resources Ltd was up 2.6 percent to $29.08 at the close. This sparked an almost seven percent rally for transport leader Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd, which closed at $51.21.

The gold sector too jumped 2.1 percent.