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A man walks past an old Toronto Stock Exchange sign in Toronto, June 23, 2014.Mark Blinch/Reuters

The Toronto stock market charged ahead Tuesday morning as buyers bought up stocks that have suffered during an autumn selloff, particularly in the energy and financial sectors.

The S&P/TSX composite index climbed 332.83 points, or 2.43 per cent, to 14,037.97. Oil prices stabilized amid weak Chinese manufacturing data and traders considered the effect of a desperate move by Russia's central bank to halt the plunge in the ruble.

The energy sector was the biggest advancer by far, rising almost seven per cent while the January crude contract in New York up five cents to $55.96 (U.S.) following a drop of almost $2 on Monday.

Outside the resource sector, financials made a major contribution to the positive session on the TSX, up 1.1 per cent while industrials gained 1.3 per cent.

"The Canadian market is oversold, oil prices of course have been in freefall and they continue to fall today – everyone seems to be trying to pick a bottom," said Himalaya Jain, a portfolio manager at ScotiaMcLeod.

"There's no question that there are some very good opportunities right now in the Canadian energy sector. But the question is, do they go lower first and then eventually go higher or is this the bottom? And that's not something that anybody, even the people buying today, can answer."

Oil prices have collapsed since mid-summer, down about 50 per cent amid a huge imbalance of supply and demand. Demand worries helped push oil further down Tuesday after HSBC said its manufacturing purchasing managers index for China slipped 0.5 points to a seven-month low of 49.5.

Talisman Energy made a big contribution to the energy sectors gain. Its shares rocketed just over 47 per cent as Spanish energy giant Repsol said that it will pay $8.3-billion (U.S.) for all the shares of the Calgary-based company, or $8 per share. Including assumed debt, the deal values Talisman at $13-billion.

The Canadian dollar was ahead 0.24 of a cent to 86.03 cents (U.S.).

U.S. indexes turned mainly higher as the Dow Jones industrials gained 212.3 points to 17,393.09, the Nasdaq lost 2.08 gained 29.36 points to 4,634.52 and the S&P 500 index climbed 22.63 points to 2,012.26.

Also focusing financial markets Tuesday was a surprise move by Russia's central bank, which hiked its key interest rate to 17 per cent from 10.5 per cent in a move to prop up the ruble, which has lost half of its value this year, in large part because of Western sanctions and plunging oil prices.

It's the central bank's biggest interest rate hike since 1998, a year when Russia defaulted on its sovereign bonds.

The ruble initially appreciated, but later declined to a fresh low of 66.81 against the greenback.

In other news from the oilpatch, Encana is bucking a trend that has seen several energy companies lower their capital expenditure forecasts. The Calgary-based company it is budgeting between $2.7-billion and $2.9-billion for capital spending next year, up from its 2014 estimate of between $2.5-billion and $2.6-billion this year. Encana shares gained $1.24 or 9.15 per cent to $14.77 (Canadian).

Elsewhere on the TSX, the gold sector faded one per cent even as early gains in bullion evaporated with February gold down $16 to $1,191.70 (U.S.) an ounce.

The base metals sector ticked 0.1 per cent lower as March copper dipped three cents to $2.85 a pound.

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