TSX BUOYED BY RISING OIL, COPPER PRICES

The Toronto stock market racked up a solid gain, led by advances in mining stocks amid rising oil and copper prices.

But volumes were much lower than average in a relatively subdued session due to the closure of New York financial markets for a second day because of superstorm Sandy.

The S&P/TSX composite index moved 64.3 points higher to 12,377.05 on volume of 169.5 shares traded worth $2.25-billion. That is well below the daily average so far this year of 337.2 million shares worth nearly $5-billion. The TSX Venture Exchange gained 11.49 points to 1,302.92.

But things will start to return to some level of normalcy on markets Wednesday when the American exchanges resume trading.

“Trading will commence on the New York Stock Exchange at 9:30 a.m. EDT under normal opening procedures, and the NYSE Euronext building and trading floor are fully operational,” said a statement by exchange operator NYSE Euronext.

The Nasdaq will also be open Wednesday after the superstorm left a large swath of New York City without power and subways and vehicle tunnels flooded.

In the meantime, Craig Fehr, Canadian markets specialist at Edward Jones in St. Louis, said traders around the world were taking a wait-and-see stance due to the closing of the U.S. markets — which normally account for a huge portion of the volume.

“Speculating in these very thin markets probably isn’t the smartest move at this point and I think you will get a lot of investors today that will just wait for a bit more liquidity tomorrow,” Fehr said.

The Canadian dollar was well off session highs, but still up US0.05¢ to US99.97¢ after closing below parity with the U.S. currency Monday for the first time since early August.

Analysts said it was particularly important for American trading to resume Wednesday, even for a shortened session, because of timing issues. “Having some opening will be critical in that it will allow for month-end pricing, which will have an effect for everything from options pricing to statements to clients,” Fehr said.

“You’re talking about having month-end pricing, month-end settlements for mutual funds and the underlying securities, not to mention equities and bonds in portfolios around the world, all the way from institutional investors to retail investors.”

Bond markets in the U.S. were also closed for a second session. The CME Group cancelled floor trading in New York and Chicago but commodity trading carried on electronically. CME will also be back to regular operations Wednesday.