TORONTO, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- On strong commodities, Canadian stocks rose for a fifth consecutive session to hit the highest level since March. After gaining 21.18 points on Tuesday, the S&P/TSX Composite Index advanced another 56.45 points, or 0.48 percent, to 11,944.54 on Wednesday.

    Gold futures climbed for a fourth session in a row to 1,137 dollars an ounce. Barrick Gold Corp. rose 1.65 percent. Kinross Gold Corp. added 2.98 percent. Goldcorp Inc. rose for a fourth day, climbing 1.47 percent.

    Crude oil increased for the tenth straight day, running to 83.18 dollars a barrel, near a 15-month high. Suncor Energy Inc. added 1.34 percent.

    Canada's five largest banks all fell by at least 0.4 percent, while Manulife Financial Corp. rose 1.99 percent after a Bank of Nova Scotia analyst said Canadian insurance companies are likely to outperform banks this year.

    Strategist Vincent Delisle said in a note on Wednesday that the Bank of Nova Scotia will favor insurers over banks in its portfolios in 2010.

    In an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. on Wednesday, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the economic outlook for year 2010 would be "very different" from year 2009, with the Canadian government planning to focus on unemployment and the deficit.

    The Institute for Supply Management said on Wednesday that its U.S. non-manufacturing index climbed to 50.1 in December from 48.7 in November.

    On the currency front, the Canadian dollar gained for the fifth straight day against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday. At 5 p.m. local time (2200 GMT), one U.S. dollar was purchasing 1.0323 Canadian dollars, comparing with one U.S. dollar purchasing 1.0392 Canadian dollars on Tuesday.

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