TORONTO (Bloomberg) - Canadian stocks gained for the first time in four days as record commodity prices boosted the earnings prospects of such oil and gas and raw-materials producers as Canadian Oil Sands Trust and Barrick Gold Corp.

Financial shares fell for the sixth-straight day after a drop in profits at Bank of Montreal and Bank of Nova Scotia yesterday triggered analyst downgrades.

"Commodities are holding things up here," said Sergio di Vito, chief operating officer and head of trading at Mavrix Fund Management, which manages about $644 million in Toronto.

The Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index gained 126.51, or 0.9 percent, to 13,603.32 in Toronto. The benchmark has fallen seven percent since October 31 on concern the US housing slump will cause mounting credit losses for banks and curb demand for Canadian exports.

Crude oil, gold and corn rose to records, leading a rebound in commodities on renewed concern that global economic growth will fuel inflation and increase demand for raw materials. Oil rose above $104 a barrel for the first time in New York and natural gas surged to the highest in 26 months. Gold touched an all-time high of $995.20 an ounce.

Canadian Oil Sands, lead partner in the world's largest oil-sands miner, gained C$3.16, or 7.5 percent, to a record C$45.48. Rival Suncor Energy Inc. rose C$2.89 to C$107.70.

Talisman Energy Inc. gained 67 cents, or four percent, to C$17.62, after it found natural gas in the UK North Sea.

Barrick Gold, the world's biggest bullion miner, advanced C$1.25 to C$52.15. Argentina said Barrick may begin building its Pascua Lama mine in September. The company also said that it completed the purchase of the Cortez property in Nevada, boosting reserves by 4.6 million ounces of gold.

Smaller rival Goldcorp Inc. added C$1.41 to C$43.88. Kinross Gold Corp., Canada's third-biggest producer of the metal, gained C$1.19, or 4.8 percent, at C$26.05.

Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc., the largest maker of crop nutrients, climbed C$2.56 to C$158.56.

Measures of raw-materials and energy shares added 2.3 percent and 1.9 percent, respectively, while a gauge of financial companies fell 0.2 percent.

"We're increasing by one percentage point our allocation to the energy sector," CIBC World Markets strategist Jeff Rubin said by phone from Toronto.

"We remain overweight materials. We're moving half a point from banks and non-banks. Financials will continue to be a drag on the index. We'll see at least another quarter of significant asset writedowns."

CIBC increased its respective forecasts for average crude-oil and gold prices in 2008 to $100 a barrel from $95, and to $1,150 an ounce from $1,050.

Bank of Montreal fell C$1.87 to C$45.02, taking its drop in 2008 to 20 percent. The worst performing bank stock in Canada this year was downgraded by at least three analysts on concerns that rising loan losses and debt writedowns will pare profits.

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, the fifth-largest bank by assets, dropped 84 cents to C$64.35. The stock is down 35 percent in a year after the bank took writedowns of $3.4 billion for the first quarter on sub-prime investments, including some guaranteed by US bond insurers.

Bank of Nova Scotia, the country's second-largest lender by assets, rose 27 cents at C$45.86. It was raised to "outperform" from "neutral" by Credit Suisse analyst Jim Bantis in Toronto. He said in a note that "headwinds" contributing to Scotiabank's first drop in profit in almost five years yesterday are "softening."

Research In Motion Ltd., the maker of the BlackBerry e-mail phones, retreated C$3.82 at C$100.43, falling for a fourth time in five days. The stock, which more than doubled in value in 2007 before dropping almost 10 percent this year, was the biggest single drag on the S&P/TSX.