The Toronto Stock Exchange's main index ended higher on Friday, bouncing back from a big selloff the previous session, as strength in resource issues offset weakness in Royal Bank of Canada after its results failed to impress the market.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 77.80 points, or 0.6 percent, at 14,024.07. The index is down 0.6 percent on the week, but up 8.6 percent so far this year.
On Thursday, the index dropped 196.24 points on profit-taking and renewed interest-rate worries in the United States, a fall that snapped a five-day, record-setting streak.
Peter Chandler, senior vice-president at Canaccord Capital, said Friday's rise was an "anemic rally" in low-volume trade ahead of the long US Memorial Day weekend. "The market is pretty fickle and skittish at this point of time," he said.
Overall, eight of the TSX index's 10 main groups were higher, led by a 0.9 percent jump in the energy group and a 1 percent bounce from the materials sector, which together account for more than 40 percent of the index's weight.
Oil and metals prices both rose on Friday. Among materials stocks, fertiliser maker Potash Corp of Saskatchewan rose C$1.51, or 2 percent, to C$72.04, and miner Teck Cominco Ltd was up C$1.48, or 3.6 percent, at C$43.16. Oil and gas shares rose as the price for US crude oil climbed above $65 a barrel on concerns over tight gasoline supplies heading into the US holiday weekend.
EnCana Corp was up 78 Canadian cents, or 1.2 percent, at C$65.93, while Suncor Energy Inc climbed C$1.37, or 1.5 percent, to C$94.17. The financial-services sector nudged up 0.04 percent. Royal Bank of Canada reported a 14 percent rise in second-quarter earnings on Friday on strength in its Canadian banking and wealth-management segments, but shares of the country's biggest bank fell C$1.79, or 3 percent, to C$58.83 as the results fell short of market expectations.
"Every now and then people just decide to go red and take a few profits off the table," said Adrian Mastracci, investment counsel and president at KCM Wealth Management Inc, in Vancouver he said of the market volatility this week.
"Today, we're seeing the economy is not that terribly bad," he added. "For those people that can see value they can go pick some things and make a few dollars here and there, selectively."
Elsewhere, units of CanWest MediaWorks Income Fund rose 63 Canadian cents, or 7.5 percent, to C$9.03 after it and CanWest Global Communications Corp announced it is taking the fund private in a deal valued at about C$495 million.
Market volume was 378 million shares worth C$7.7 billion. Advancers outpaced decliners 868 to 722. The blue chip S&P/TSX 60 index closed 5.35 points higher, or 0.67 percent, at 803.58. South of the border, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 66.15 points, or 0.49 percent, to 13,507.28, while the Nasdaq Composite Index ended up 19.27 points, or 0.76 percent, at 2,557.19.
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