(RTTNews) - Toronto’s main index has surged to an eight-week high on Tuesday as traders mulled economic data on both sides of the border. The S&P/TSX Composite Index has gained 197.84 points up 2.10% to 9,480.27.

Mining stocks have added another 9.9% to their recent surge, which has been propelled by rising copper prices. The Diversified Metals and Mining Index has now gained more than 30% over the three sessions.

Among the big gainers, FNX Mining (FNX.TO) is up 23.6%, Inmet (INM.TO) has gained 19.9% and First Quantum Minerals (FM.TO) has added 14.9%.

Financials are up 3.5%. CIBC (CM.TO) has jumped 6.8%, the Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO) is up 6.4% and National Bank (NA.TO) has added 4.45%.

Gold stocks are up 2.9%. Novagold (NG.TO) surged 36.8%, Agnico-Eagle Mines (AEM.TO) is up 5.1% and Eldorado (ELD.TO) is up 5%.

Energy stocks are up 2.3%. Calfrac (CFW.TO) has surged 12.1%, Baytex (BTE.UN.TO) is up 7.2%, Enerplus (ERF.UN.TO) has gained 7.1% and Suncor (SU.TO) is up 6.1%.

Oil backed off its highs of the day but remained modestly higher in afternoon trading. Light sweet crude for February delivery rose to $49.11, up 30 cents on the day. Prices hit as high as $50.47 in early trading as Kuwait and Qatar indicated they will begin to implement the OPEC-directed supply cuts.

In corporate news, Rogers Communications (RCI.TO) has dropped 3.25% after the company released its preliminary fourth quarter subscriber statistics, indicating a decline in cable subscriber additions. The Telecommunications Index is up 0.85%.

Luxell Technologies (LUX.TO) fell 20% after the provider of flat panel display technologies announced its quarterly revenues fell to C$318,000 from C$1.46 million a year ago.

On the economic front, Canadian industrial product prices fell 2.6% in December. Economists expected a much more modest decline of 0.9 percent. Raw materials prices fell 13.4%, compared to the 9% drop predicted by experts.

South of the border, the Institute for Supply Management released its December report on activity in the services sector. The index of activity in the sector rose notably to 40.6, while analysts expected a slight decline to 37.0 from a record low reading of 37.3 in November.

At the same time, the government issued its report on November factory orders, showing a decline of 4.6 percent following a revised 6.0 percent decrease in October. Factory orders were expected to decline 2.6 percent in November.

Similarly, weakness was also seen in the pending home sales report that was released by the National Association of Realtors. Pending home sales fell by 4 percent in November after a decline of 0.7 percent in October. Analysts expected pending sales to have fallen 1.0 percent.

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