Canadian stocks rose most in three month on Thursday. The S&P/TSX Composite Index closed up 212.18 points, or 1.68 percent, at 12,870.01.
Vancouver-based Western Coal Corp. jumped up 47.02 percent after Florida-based Walter Energy offered to buy the company. Western Coal said it has begun exclusive negotiations with the U.S. coal producer.
Suncor Energy Inc., Canada's largest energy producer, surged 3. 90 percent as oil rebounded.
Royal Bank of Canada, the country's biggest lender, increased 2. 15. Manulife Financial Corp., Canada's largest insurer, climbed 2. 35 percent.
Uranium One Inc rallied 5.16 percent.
On the economic front, strong foreign investment in Canadian securities was sustained in September as non-residents added a further 12.3 billion U.S. dollars to their portfolios, for a cumulative total of 87.2 billion U.S. dollars over the first three quarters of 2010, according to data released by Statistics Canada on Thursday. Meanwhile, Canadian acquisitions of foreign securities strengthened to 4.6 billion U.S. dollars in September, the largest outflow since March.
On the currency front, the Canadian dollar appreciated against its U.S. counterpart on Thursday.
One U.S. dollar was buying 1.0190 Canadian dollars at 5 p.m. local time (2200 GMT) on Thursday, compared with one U.S. dollar buying 1.0244 Canadian dollars on Wednesday.
