TORONTO, April 14 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index rose on Tuesday, led by technology and metal mining shares, as a drop in oil prices helped investors look past recent geopolitical uncertainty.
The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX Composite Index ended up 223.12 points, or 0.7%, at 34,102.36, marking the highest closing level since March 2, when the index posted a record high.
"This is the definition of 'climbing the wall of worry,'" said Greg Taylor, chief investment officer at PenderFund Capital Management, referring to the ability of stocks to rise despite challenges to the outlook.
"There's so much fear out there, and it seems like the market is shrugging it off. We had a big reversal in oil prices, and that's gotten a lot of people coming back to risk assets," Taylor said.
The price of oil settled 7.9% lower at $91.28 a barrel on hopes that Iran will resume talks with the United States to end the conflict, which has shut the Strait of Hormuz.
Talks to end the Iran war could resume in Pakistan over the next two days, U.S. President Donald Trump said.
In Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a temporary suspension of a fuel tax one day after his Liberal Party swept three special elections to secure a parliamentary majority.
"We've got some negativity on the energy stocks but that's being offset by some strength in these other sectors," Taylor said.
Technology added 2.8%, with shares of data center company Keel Infrastructure Corp up 21.4%.
The materials group, which includes metal mining shares, ended 1.2% higher. It was helped by a 2.2% advance in the price of gold as reduced safe-haven demand and encouraging U.S. producer price data weighed on the U.S. dollar.
Heavily weighted financials gained 1.2% as investors assessed U.S. bank earnings.
Shares of MDA Space rose 7.1% to the highest level since August 2025 after Amazon.com said it will acquire Globalstar. MDA is the primary contractor for Globalstar's next-generation constellation.
Energy was the biggest decliner, falling 2.4%.
(Reporting by Fergal Smith in Toronto and Tharuniyaa Lakshmi in Bengaluru; Editing by Jonathan Ananda and Will Dunham)
By Fergal Smith
