The S&P/TSX composite index jumped 172.13 points, or 1.85 per-cent, to 9,496. 96 Friday as gainers outpaced losers by over three-to-one, and nine of 10 industry groups ended in the black.
The Toronto Stock Exchange headed into the weekend on a positive note, thanks to rising oil and metals prices, but Friday's gains weren't to keep Canada's main exchange from recording its first weekly loss in two months.
Friday's gains helped pare losses suffered during the week that stemmed from the global outbreak of swine flu.
But the benchmark still completed down 0.55 percent from the previous Friday's close of 9,549.48.
The TSX venture exchange was also higher Friday, jumping 1.19 points, or 0. 12 per-cent, to 1,010.17, and the Canadian dollar closed at 84.32 cents US, up 50 basis points.
In the United States, all three major indexes overcame early losses and closed the week over four percent higher. On Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average added 44.29 points, or 0.54 per-cent, to 8,212.41. The S&P 500 advanced 4.71 points, or 0.54 per-cent, to 877.52, and the Nasdaq composite index jumped 1.9 points, or 0.11 per-cent, to 1,719.20.
``It is truly impressive how investors managed to shake off the initial jitters over swine flu at the start of the week, pushing most major markets higher yet again on the week on growing signs that the worst is over for the global downturn and the fact that Mexico is reporting fewer new cases of the flu,'' said Doug Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Capital Markets.
Commodity prices got a boost Friday from a new survey that showed U.S. consumers in April felt more confident about the U.S. economy, and from new data showing a slowing contraction in the U.S. manufacturing sector.
In Toronto, energy stocks were 3.74 percent higher as oil rose $2.08 to $53. 20 US a barrel, and Suncor Energy Inc. was upgraded to Goldman Sach Group Inc. 's ``conviction buy'' list. Suncor was up three percent to $32.37.
The materials group was also higher as base metals such as copper rose on the renewed economic sentiment. Gold, meanwhile, fell $3 to $888.20 US an ounce.
Cott climbed over 70 percent after the generic soft-drink maker beat estimates, reporting first-quarter profit of 28 cents US a share compared with its year-earlier loss of 30 cents.
Other TSX stocks making noise Friday included Research in Motion Ltd. and Cott Corp. RIM, maker of BlackBerrys, climbed over three percent after UBS analyst Jeffrey Fan upgraded his rating on the company from ``neutral'' to ``buy'' and increased his price target from $85 US to $90 US.
