Canadian stocks rise with support from gold producers

Canadian stocks rose on Tuesday as gold stocks rallied along with the bullion futures. The S&P/TSX Composite Index closed up 37.84 points, or 0.31 percent, at 12,209.88. The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index closed down 9.97 points, or 0.57 percent, at 1,727.87. Gold stocks provided the strongest support for the markets as bullion futures rose after the International Monetary Fund warned on slowing global growth. Goldcorp Inc. advanced 5.18 percent, while Kinross Gold Corp. climbed 4.33 percent. The index measuring the diversified metals and mining sector on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) lost 3.91 percent as copper futures continued to decline. First Quantum Minerals Ltd. reduced 7.57 percent after tumbling 8.36 percent on Monday. Teck Resources Ltd., Canada's largest base-metals producer, decreased another 3. 09 percent after losing 3.71 percent on Monday. The index measuring the information technology sector on the TSX lost 1.23 percent with the BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. going down 3.62 percent. On corporate news, Air Canada jumped up 6.92 percent after the company and its flight attendants' union reached a last-minute agreement, avoiding a strike. On the economic front, data released by Statistics Canada showed that wholesale sales in Canada advanced 0.8 percent in July after remaining unchanged in June. Currency-wise, the Canadian dollar weakened against its U.S. counterpart for a second day. One U.S. dollar was buying 0.9923 Canadian dollars at 5 p.m. local time (2200 GMT) on Tuesday, compared with 0.9899 Canadian dollars on Monday.