On Thursday, the S&P/TSX index in Toronto rose 385.08 points to close at 13,766.67 and the loonie gained 0.59 of a U.S. cent.

The snap back in oil prices has given new life to beleaguered energy stocks, which are the leading gainers Friday on the Toronto Stock Exchange. That marked the biggest one-day gain for oil since March 2009.

“We’ve had this wholesale sell-off in the markets and it effectively went into oversold conditions and this is just buying from that oversold bottom”, said Benjamin Jang of Nicola Wealth Management. I’m not entirely sure.

The relief rally in oil prices has been spurred by short-covering as well as growing dissension within the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, with cash-strapped members like Venezuela and Algeria reportedly pressuring OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia to curtail output.

New York markets softened after huge jumps the two previous sessions followed a weeklong plunge that saw the Dow Jones industrial index shed nearly 1,900 points.

New York markets were mixed, with the Dow Jones Industrial average down 47.04 points at 16,607.73 after more than a week of gyrations. December gold retreated $2.20 to US$1,122.40 an ounce.

Lingard said he expects volatility to continue into the fall, especially in advance of policy rate meetings of the Federal Reserve as traders speculate on when and how quickly the U.S. central bank will move to raise interest rates from historically low levels near zero.

In afternoon trading, the S&P/TSX composite index was up 354.18 points or 2.65 per cent at 13,735.77 as investors bought up stocks beaten down in the six-day slide that began last week by fears over a slowdown in China’s economy.

That was much higher than the initial estimate of 2.3 per cent and a big improvement over the 0.6 per cent advance in the first quarter and an indication that world’s largest economy was on solid footing heading into the second half of the year.