04:27 PM EST, 11/21/2024 (MT Newswires) -- The Toronto Stock Exchange surged to a fresh record on Thursday, pushed higher as traders pushed up energy and tech issues and rising for a fourth-straight session.

The S&P/TSX Composite Index closed up 354.22 points to close at 25,390.68, topping the prior record of 25.049.67 set on Nov.14. Information Technology, up 2.18%, and Energy, up 1.82%, were the biggest gainers. Telecom was the biggest decliner, down 0.46%. Advancing issues outpaced decliners 1,216 to 674, with 149 listings closing unchanged.

With Thursday gains, the market has climbed 25% over the past 12 months, lagging the 31% rise in the S&P 500 Index over the period and the Nasdaq's 33% gain.

Thursday's session included a rare initial public offering as Groupe Dynamite (GRGD.TO), the Montreal-based retailer behind the Dynamite and Garage apparel stores, was at last look down 5.02% at $19.85 on its Toronto Stock Exchange debut Thursday, having priced its initial public offering at $21 per subordinate voting share.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil closed higher on Thursday as its geopolitical-risk premium increased after Russia was said to use an intercontinental missile to attack Ukraine, even as supply remains robust. In its first day as the active contract, WTI crude oil for January delivery closed up US$1.35 to settle at US$70.10 per barrel, while January Brent crude, the global benchmark, closed up US$1.42 to US$74.23.

Gold traded higher for a fourth-straight session late afternoon on Thursday as Russia's war on Ukraine intensified.

Gold for February delivery was last seen up US$22.20 to US$2,697.80 per ounce.

In U.S. trading, Oxford Economics is maintaining defensive allocations following the markets' muted response to Trump's mandate. It noted market responses suggest there is "too much information and too much uncertainty to process". "Markets are being too sanguine about downside risks, as it is hard to grapple with the implications of Trump's trade policy agenda,." Oxford Economics said, before adding: "We can be certain tariffs will aim to protect US industrial and strategic interests and will target China. Beyond that, implications become murky given Trump's transactional approach to policy and tricky-to-process second-round effects."

Also, a Macquarie strategist said Fed hawks are right to worry about resumption of some U.S. inflation following the US election. Thierry Wizman, Global FX & Rates Strategist, said the prospect that the coming policy agenda change can foster U.S. inflation sooner than when the policies are actually implemented. Wizman said "US import tariffs, for example, can have that "before-the-fact" effect on US inflation as consumers and businesses may horde goods ahead of the increase in prices that would come with the tariffs. The Fed's hawks, in effect, are right to worry a bit more about the resumption of some US inflation, following the US election. Five-year inflation breakevens, after all, continue to climb toward that critical level of 2.5%, which marks the demarcation between consistency with the Fed's 2.0% inflation target (on the PCE PI) and inconsistency with reaching that target".