TSX regains some of Wednesday's losses

The TSX composite index over a month

9The TSX on Thursday clawed back about a third of the ground it lost in the sell-off Wednesday, leaving the benchmark composite index higher for the first time this week.

The U.S. Dow Jones industrial average and Nasdaq made much smaller gains.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 139.69 points at 9,849.20. It was the first gain this week but still left the index with a long way to go to before it recovers the 368 points lost Wednesday.

And it's still far below the close of 10,238 last Friday.

The Dow Jones average gained 46.43 points to 8,337.32. It fell 184 points Wednesday. Nasdaq was up 25.02 points to 1,689.21. It lost 51 points Wednesday.

The price of a barrel of light sweet crude oil rose 60 cents to $58.62 US in futures trading in New York. That helped the TSX energy subindex, which rose nearly two per cent.

The financial subindex was up 2.26 per cent, and all the subindexes rose, except for health care and utilities.

On Wednesday, investors dumped stocks in the wake of a report from the U.S. Department of Commerce showing unexpectedly weak retail sales in April.