Canadian stocks rose for a second day, helping the main index rise to the highest in a month, after the U.S. provided $6 billion to General Motors Corp.’s finance unit, increasing efforts to keep the carmaker solvent. Bank of Nova Scotia climbed 4.7 percent, pacing gains among lenders. Sun Life Financial Inc. added 7.4 percent, leading insurance companies higher after Great-West Lifeco Inc. closed its C$1 billion ($790.7 million) share sale. Mining stocks fell as declining bullion prices dragged down Barrick Gold Corp. “There’s still appetite for stocks,” said Pierre Bernard, who helps manage about $1 billion in assets at Industrial Alliance Fund Management in Montreal. The GM aid “is helping in terms of perception,” The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index gained 2.2 percent to 8,830.72 in Toronto, paring its drop this year to 36 percent. That would be the Canadian stock market’s biggest annual decline since it lost 37 percent of its value in 1931. The main Canadian stock benchmark rose 3.9 percent yesterday. Before this week, the S&P/TSX fell 40 percent in 2008 as the energy, mining and finance shares accounting for 75 percent of its value were dragged down by a commodity slump and more than $1 trillion in global credit writedowns. Scotiabank, Canada’s third-biggest bank, gained 4.7 percent today to C$32.45, the most in a month. Toronto-Dominion Bank, the country’s second-largest lender by assets, gained 4.5 percent to C$42.50. Royal Bank of Canada, the biggest, added 1.8 percent to C$35.49. Lender Reorganizing The U.S. Treasury will purchase a $5 billion stake in GMAC and lend $1 billion to GM so the automaker can contribute to the lender’s reorganization as a bank holding company, according to a statement issued yesterday. The loan is in addition to $13.4 billion the Treasury agreed earlier this month to lend to GM and Chrysler LLC. GM and Chrysler also got C$4 billion in emergency loans from Canada on Dec. 21. A bankruptcy by GM, Chrysler or Ford Motor Co. would have a “profound” impact on Ontario and hurt Canadian banks, according to a Dec. 15 report from Moody’s Investors Service Inc. Canada’s five biggest banks have C$58.5 billion in loans linked to the auto industry, mostly to consumers, Moody’s said in the report. Scotiabank and Bank of Montreal have the biggest stakes in the industry, with about 56 percent of the total. Bank of Montreal rose 2 cents to C$30.90. Standard & Poor’s yesterday stripped top ratings from 10 series of structured investment vehicles supported by banks and insurers including Bank of Montreal and Citigroup Inc. among others. Insurers Sun Life Financial Inc., the nation’s third-largest insurer, climbed C$1.96 to C$28.45, the highest since Nov. 10. Rival Manulife Financial Corp. added 4.4 percent to C$20.35. Great-West, Canada’s second-biggest insurer, said it completed a sale of C$600.1 million in shares in a public offering and an issue of C$400.1 million of stock to Power Financial Corp. It followed discounted stock sales this month by Royal Bank, Manulife and Toronto-Dominion to shore up capital reduced by credit writedowns and investment losses. Canadian banks and insurers led a $5.65 billion surge in new equity sales in December, the highest monthly total since at least 1999, helping counter the worst year for new stock sales since 2005. Great-West gained 1.1 percent to C$20.70. Power Financial, which has a 73 percent stake in Great-West, rose 6.1 percent to C$23.85. A gauge of financial shares in the S&P/TSX, the most valuable among 10 industries, added 3.4 percent today, paring its decline this year to 40 percent. Magna International Inc., North America’s largest auto- parts maker, rose 6.7 percent to C$34.90, helping an index of companies depending on consumer spending to a 4.4 percent gain. Ontario-based Magna gets about half its revenue from North America. Magna has lost 56 percent of its stock market value this year. Bullion Miners Barrick Gold, the world’s largest bullion mining company, declined 2.6 percent to C$44.15 after surging 9.8 percent yesterday. Goldcorp Inc. dropped 3.1 percent to C$37.29. Gold futures in New York slipped 0.6 percent to $870 an ounce in New York today on speculation a rally to the highest price since October was overdone. Gold retreated as crude oil was poised for its first annual decline in seven years amid recessions in the U.S., Germany and Japan. Oil fell 2.5 percent to $39.03 a barrel in New York. Oil has tumbled 73 percent from a record $147.27 in July Energy stocks still advanced today, on forecasts that oil prices may rebound to average $60 a barrel in 2009 as OPEC makes record production cuts to counter the deepest economic slump since World War II. The forecast is the median of 33 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. EnCana Corp., Canada’s biggest energy company by market value, rose 3.7 percent to C$56.41, paring its drop in 2008 to 16 percent. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. gained 4.2 percent to C$47.68.

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