Canadian stock market closes higher on positive Chinese, U.S. economic data (3)

The information sector jumped 1.91 percent. Shares of Blackberry maker Research In Motion rose 2.9 percent after its rival Apple Inc. reported disappointing iPhone5 sales and China's Lenovo Group said at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland that the BlackBerry maker was among its potential acquisition and strategic alliances options.

The financial sector gained 0.39 percent. Royal Bank of Canada increased 0.59 percent to 61.80 Canadian dollars (61.61 dollars) per share.

At closing, the Canadian dollar closed below parity with the American dollar for the first time since mid-November. It weakened to 0.9977 U.S. dollar at 5 p.m. local time (2200 GMT) following the Bank of Canada's reductions in the economic growth forecast, compared with 1.0010 U.S. dollar on Wednesday.