The Financial Post reports in its Wednesday, Aug. 22, edition that industrial stocks such as Canadian National Railway, Canadian Pacific Railway, ATS Automation Tooling Systems and Bombardier have surpassed materials as the third-largest sector on the S&P/TSX Composite Index for the first time in at least 17 years. The Post's Kristine Owram writes that industrial stocks are feeding off a booming Canadian and U.S. economy while miners slump with declining metal prices. The benchmark has been dominated by the so-called Big Three -- financials, energy and materials -- since the market was first divided into sectors in 2001. While industrials are on the rise, Canadian firms had a poor second quarter earnings season compared with the United States. Only 49 per cent of companies on the benchmark beat profit expectations, compared with 81 per cent for the S&P 500 Index. Industrials now make up 10.4 per cent of the benchmark after 65 per cent of companies beat second quarter earnings expectations, pushing the sector to a gain of 11 per cent this year. CN and CP were the companies most responsible for the sector's gain. Barrick Gold and Agnico Eagle Mines had the most influence on the sector's decline.