Nov. 4, 2009 (Baystreet.ca) --

Bay Street stocks continue to move notably higher on Wednesday after the U.S. Federal Reserve said it expects to leave rates near zero for a while. Moments from the final bell, the S&P/TSX composite index was well off its triple-digit highs for the day, but still ahead 17.84 points to 11,043.74. The Federal Open Market Committee said it was leaving its target for the federal funds rate at a range from zero and a quarter percent. The central bank also repeated its assessment that "exceptionally" low rates will continue for an "extended period." The vote for the rate decision was unanimous. Mining stocks such as HudBay, soared 9.8% to $15.83 after the company reported third quarter earnings of $0.13 per share, compared to earnings of $0.02 a year ago. Among consumer discretionary stocks, Corus Entertainment Group rallied 5.3% to $17.82, Cogeco Cable was up 4% to $31.96 and Canadian Tire was even at $62.25 Yellow Pages Income Fund lost 2.8% to $5.20 after the company reported a loss of $0.33, compared to earnings of $0.28 per share a year ago. Materials stocks such Agrium subtracted 0.5% to $51.07 after the fertilizer maker announced adjusted third-quarter net earnings of $46 million U.S. or $0.29 U.S. earnings per share, compared to $0.16 U.S. per share forecast by analysts. Rival Potash gained 0.2% to $100.55. Gold stocks like Iamgold Corp. climbed 3.3% to $16.65 after it reported that its third-quarter net earnings were $64.9 million U.S. or $0.18 U.S. per share, compared to $18.8 million U.S. or $0.06 U.S. per share in the same quarter last year. Yamana Gold announced that its third-quarter net earnings were $60.82 million U.S. or $0.08 U.S. per share, compared to $150.20 million U.S. or $0.21 U.S. per share in the year ago quarter. However, the stocks turned higher by 0.4% to $12.59. In other corporate news, Enbridge rallied 1.8% to $42.71 after reporting third-quarter net earnings of $303.8 million or $0.83 per share, compared to $148.4 million or $0.41 per share last year. Total Energy Services lost 1.5% to $4.57 after the company posted third-quarter net earnings of $2.2 million or $0.08 per share, compared to $6.1 million or $0.21 per share in the previous-year quarter. WestJet reported third-quarter net earnings of $31.4 million or $0.24 per share, compared to net earnings of $57.9 million or $0.45 per share in the year-ago quarter. The stock was up 1% to $11.20. Torstar Corp reported third-quarter net income of $4.04 million or $0.05 per share, compared to net loss of $748,000 or $0.01 per share last year.