TORONTO — Canadian stocks were higher on Friday, as investors kept the current rally alive by closing out another week in positive territory.
The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index rebounded from a big drop on Thursday, added 43.83 points, or 0.44 per cent, to close at 9,993.42. For the week, the country's top exchange climbed 2.36 per cent from its previous week close of 9,762.85.
Meanwhile, the TSX Venture Exchange was up 6.66 points, or 0.61 per cent on Friday, closing at 1,096.51.
The Canadian dollar climbed to 89.26 cents US, up 1.39 cents.
"Although a series of developments appeared to take the wind out of market's sails (Thursday), (Friday's) rebound indicates that these developments were not enough, however, to weaken underlying support or give bears enough conviction to drive markets lower," said Colin Cieszynski, market analyst at CMC Markets Canada in Toronto.
Gainers outpaced losers 120 to 86 in Toronto, with six of the 10 sub-indexes ending the session in the black.
The energy group resumed its winning ways, climbing 0.97 per cent as oil jumped 62 cents to $61.67 US a barrel. Materials stocks were also higher, rising 1.14 per cent as base metals advanced and gold climbed to $958.90 US an ounce, up $7.70.
Grain prices were also higher, giving a boost to Canada's agricultural and fertilizer stocks. Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. added 3.05 per cent to $127.80, and Agrium Inc. closed at $56.58, up 1.96 per cent. Both stocks were upgraded by P.J. Juvekar, analyst at Citigroup Capital Markets.
"We think investors are looking past spring weakness to an improvement in grain prices and farmer economics in 2010 and beyond," he said. "While the share prices have rallied from the bottom, our analysis of fertilizer producer multiples in periods of high corn prices indicates there is still further upside."
Stocks making noise Friday included Computer Modelling Group, which rose more than 14 per cent to $14.25 after it reported fourth-quarter net earnings of $6.1 million, or 35 cents per share, up from $3 million or 18 cents a share this time last year.
Toronto-based forestry company Sino-Forest Corp. lost 11 per cent to $11.30 after it announced a syndicate of underwriters has agreed to expand a bought deal financing and will buy another 3.5 million common shares at $11. The total bought deal of 30 million common shares is worth $330 million
In the U.S., all three major indexes ended the week with gains, despite the fact that stocks slid Friday for the fourth straight day. The Dow Jones industrial average ended the week up 0.1 per cent after closing Friday at 8,277.32, down 14.81 points, or 0.18 per cent. The S&P 500 lost 1.33 points, or 0.15 per cent, to 887.00 and closed the week up 0.5 per cent. The Nasdaq composite index was down 3.24 points, or 0.19 per cent, to 1,692.01 Friday. For the week, it climbed 0.7 per cent.
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