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$61 oil lifts market

TORONTO (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks notched the sixth record in eight days, led by commodity producers such as Petro-Canada and Kinross Gold, as crude oil prices climbed to the highest this year and gold completed a seven-week rally.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index added 25.55, or 0.2 percent, to 13,343.53 in Toronto. Measures of energy and material stocks account for more than two-fifths of the benchmark, which gained 0.2 percent for the week.

“The Canadian market is happy today — oil’s up, gold and copper, too,” said Michael Sprung, president of Sprung & Co.

Investment Counsel in Toronto. The market is “very reactive to changes in commodity prices.”

Gains in the market today were limited as computer-related shares declined after US technology companies BEA Systems and Intuit reported profits that missed analysts’ estimates.

The gauges of energy and materials shares rose 0.5 percent and 0.1 percent, respectively.

Petro-Canada, the nation’s third-biggest oil and gas producer, climbed 69 cents at 44.65. EnCana Corp., the nation’s largest natural-gas producer, gained 41 cents at C$55.96.

Suncor Energy, the second-biggest oil-sands miner, added 43 cents at C$85.43. It was added to Goldman, Sachs & Co.’s “conviction buy list.”

Crude oil for April delivery rose as much as 1.4 percent to $61.80 a barrel in New York, the highest since December 26, on speculation that US fuel inventories will plunge in the weeks ahead as refineries shut for repairs.

It closed at $60.93, up 19 cents, or 0.3 percent, in New York.

Kinross Gold gained 28 cents to C$16.28. Canada’s third-biggest bullion producer this week reported a fourth-quarter profit, compared with a loss a year earlier.