Growth in Asia, North America push up loonie against rivals

The value of the Canadian dollar gained against most of its rival currencies Tuesday amid strong indications of growth in Asia and North America, according to Bloomberg.

The loonie climbed to its highest value in nearly one week against its southerly rival amid advances for crude oil, the natural-resources-rich nation's top commodity. A Canadian report set for distribution on Friday, the first of June, is forecast to show Canada's gross domestic product grew during the first quarter of the year, which would mark the third consecutive quarter of expansion.

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We seem to have been overwhelmed by a general trend that's more positive for risk, global head of foreign-exchange strategy Adam Cole with Royal Bank of Canada's RBC Capital Markets unit in London told Bloomberg. You've got the contrast of equities everywhere being quite strongly up, with the exception of Spain, which is down quite heavily on concerns about quite how the government will go about recapitalizing the banks.

The loonie advanced against 10 of its top 16 rivals, nearing its highest value against the world's reserve currency since May 23.

But crude oil futures' gains on Tuesday were tempered by concerns for financial institutes in Spain as the nation struggles with the sovereign debt crisis, according to Dow Jones Newswires.