Stocks in Toronto enjoyed a rise of more than 300 points on Tuesday, while U.S. markets saw small gains.

The S&P/TSX composite index rose 338 points, or 3.46 per cent, to close at 10,100.95.

Driving the index higher was a gain of almost 6.5 per cent for the energy sub-group of stocks, as oil prices climbed. The price of crude got as high as $60.48 US a barrel before settling at $59.65, up 62 cents from Monday.

The financial services group was up slightly more than five per cent, while the mining sub-index gained substantially as well.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones turned negative in the afternoon hours, closing the day down 29 points to 8,474.85, while the broader S&P 500 lost a single point to reach 908.13.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq index was up two points at 1,734.

U.S. markets were held back by a surprisingly weak April report on U.S. housing starts. U.S. home builders began 458,000 new homes on a seasonally adjusted, annualized basis in April, the lowest figure on record going back to January 1959.