Canada's main stock market ends higher

Canada's main stock market on Tuesday rebounded to close higher, ending three consecutive trading days of losses. Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index, the main stock market index, recorded the first gain since beginning of the new year and rebounded 101.39 points to close at 13,596.93 points Tuesday. With the increase led by shares of the healthcare sector, the S& P/TSX composite index advanced amid a slate of economic data coming out later this week, including Canadian jobs figures, while investors were expecting for reports of strong fourth-quarter earnings. The stock market was also expecting the positive economic data from U.S.. Economists predict the U.S. non-farm payrolls report will show that about 195,000 jobs were created in the world's largest economy in December. On the commodity markets, the February crude oil contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose to 93.85 U.S. dollars a barrel, which helped push up the energy sector shares by 1.13 percent. Shares of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc., a Canadian drug maker, jumped 15.04 Canadian dollars (13.96 U.S. dollars), or 12.53 percent, to 135.03 U.S. dollars a share after the pharmaceutical giant said Tuesday that it expected a rise of 40 percent in its revenue between 8.2 billion to 8.6 billion Canadian dollars for the fiscal year 2014, and cash earnings between 8.25 and 8.75 Canadian dollars per share. The tech sector also advanced with BlackBerry registering a solid gain for a second day, up 7.4 percent, or 0.63 Canadian dollar, to close at 9.14 Canadian dollars, the highest price since Sept.20, after the smartphone maker said Monday it had hired Ron Louks, who used to hold senior positions at HTC America Inc. and Sony Ericsson, to help develop the company's long-term product road map. The trade data released Tuesday weighed on the Canadian currency rate against the U.S. dollar. Statistics Canada reported Tuesday that Canada's merchandise imports edged up 0.1 percent while exports were unchanged in November. As a result, Canada's trade deficit with the world expanded from 908 million Canadian dollars in October to 940 million Canadian dollars in November. The Canadian dollar went down to 0.9290 U.S. dollar on Tuesday, compared with 0.9388 U.S. dollar in Monday's trading.