CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Toronto's main stock index jumped nearly two percent on Wednesday to end the worst year for Canadian stocks since the Great Depression on a positive note as oil prices staged a late-session rally.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 156.98 points, or 1.8 percent, at 8,987.70 in a third-straight session of triple-digit gains.

That still translates into a full-year drop of 35 percent, the biggest for the stock market since 1931, according to TSX figures. The Dow Jones industrial average in the United States also had its worst performance since that year, falling 34 percent.

"It's a positive day for a bad year, and we've had a few positive days now," said Ian Nakamoto, director of research at MacDougall, MacDougall and MacTier in Toronto.

"It's nice to see green on the screen — meaning go ahead — as opposed to red — stop and rethink your strategy."

All ten main subgroups ended higher, led by health care, up four percent, information technology, up three percent, and consumer staples, up 2.5 percent.

The heavily weighted energy sector rose 1.7 percent, with Husky Energy, Nexen and Ensign Energy Services each gaining more than three percent.

Oil prices surged late in the session to end up $5.57, or 14 percent, at $44.60 a barrel, lifted by concern about winter fuel supplies amid slowing refinery activity.

Despite the jump, crude is down more than $100 a barrel from its high set in July. Analysts have blamed the steep drop in oil and other commodities — which were pressured by the global economic crisis — for the brutal year for stocks.

Before the meltdown, Canada was riding a resource-driven boom with its abundance of oil, minerals and grain.

The year's worst performing TSX sector was information technology, which lost half its value as expenditures on tech gear dwindled. It was followed by financial services, which skidded 39 percent, and energy, which fell 38 percent.