Source: The Canadian Press

Stronger resource stocks helped push the Toronto stock market higher Monday as a further weakening of the U.S. dollar in the wake of last weekend’s meeting of G20 finance ministers pushed commodities higher.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 62.4 points at 12,663.58, while the TSX Venture Exchange was up 22.3 points at 1,900.53.

The G20 meeting ended with a pledge that member countries would avoid competitive devaluations of their currencies, which in turn could derail the global economic recovery.

However, with no concrete guidelines to go by, the U.S. dollar resumed its fall, which drove the Canadian dollar and commodities higher.

“G20 is a big boat. It’s tough to move it in any direction but you do make little incremental shifts in the rudder and it steers the group to your intended destination,” said Chris King, vice-president and portfolio manager at Morgan, Meighen and Associates.

The loonie was ahead 0.63 of a cent at 98.01 cents US.

Analysts said firmer guidelines may yet be delivered at next month’s meeting of world leaders in South Korea. For the time being, though, the promises were enough to help investors look past immediate threats of a currency war and focus on the main economic event on the horizon — the Federal Reserve’s expected expansion of the U.S. money supply in an attempt to boost growth that markets fear could also weaken the dollar.

Such a move could be announced as early as Nov. 3 when the Fed makes its next announcement on interest rates.

The base metal sector led TSX advancers, up about 2% as the December copper contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange ran ahead seven cents to US$3.86 a pound. Teck Resources (TSX:TCK.B) climbed 79 cents to C$46.26 and Lundin Mining (TSX:LUN) was ahead 15 cents at $6.90.

The telecom sector was also supportive up 1.4%, with Telus Corp. (TSX:T) ahead 79 cents at $47.12 and Rogers Communications (TSX:RCI.B) gaining 31 cents to $41.31.

Market heavyweight Research In Motion (TSX:RIM) also helped lift the TSX. Its shares jumped $2.63 or 5.23% to $52.89 after the company launched an Adobe software developer kit that can create applications for its PlayBook tablet.

The energy sector was up 0.17% as the December crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange gained 83 cents to US$82.52 a barrel. Imperial Oil (TSX:IMO) was up 23 cents at C$39.35.

Gold stocks also advanced as the December bullion contract on the Nymex jumped $13.80 to US$1,338.90 an ounce. Goldcorp Inc. (TSX:G) gained 36 cents to C$43.55, while Eldorado Gold Corp. (TSX:ELD) was up 29 cents at $17.56.

Financial stocks were the biggest drag.

Royal Bank (TSX:RY) lost 43 cents to $55.33. Scotiabank (TSX:BNS) drifted three cents lower to $54.52 as Edward Jones downgraded the stock to hold from buy.

“Strong share performance has driven BNS’s valuation premium over peers to a level we believe appropriately reflects our outlook for above average asset growth and returns on equity,” it said in a commentary.

New York markets also closed higher but well off early levels.

The Dow Jones industrials, up as much as 115 points early in the session, closed 31.49 points higher at 11,164.05 with weakness coming from the financial sector as questions continued regarding the foreclosure practices of major banks.

The Nasdaq climbed 11.46 points to 2,490.85 while the S&P 500 index gained 2.54 points to 1,185.62. On the economic front, the U.S. National Association of Realtors said sales of previously occupied homes rose 10% last month. However, sales remain extremely weak compared with where they were just a year ago, which was likely keeping enthusiasm over the news in check. Meanwhile, the Canadian third-quarter corporate earnings season gets going in earnest this week with several heavyweights reporting, including Canadian National Railway (TSX:CNR) and Rogers Communications (TSX:RCI.B) on Tuesday, Canadian Pacific Railway (TSX:CP) and Goldcorp Inc. (TSX:G) on Wednesday and Barrick Gold (TSX:ABX) and Potash Inc. (TSX:POT) on Thursday.

“In the U.S., we have seen 85% of corporations beating expectations — hard to say that about the Canadian side in terms of numbers,” King said.

“I mean the metal prices, commodity prices are all high and that’s a good third of our market. So financials hold it flat, energy a bit weaker and metals are strong.”

In other corporate news, the Saskatchewan government is ramping up the rhetoric in its effort to convince Ottawa to block BHP Billiton’s US$38.6-billion bid to acquire PotashCorp (TSX:POT). Premier Brad Wall points out that in a 2008 article by the Hellenic Shipping News, then BHP Billiton chairman Don Argus warned that too much foreign control of resources would turn Australia into a “branch office — just like Canada.”

And in a May 2009 edition of the Melbourne Herald Sun, Argus is quoted as saying that “Canada had forfeited its resources sector, much to detriment of the country.”

PotashCorp shares were up $1.82 at $146.90.