Bay Street stocks finished in the green on Friday amid light volume, posting its seventh gain in the last eight sessions of 2010. Consumer staples and healthcare stocks drove the market into positive territory.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index climbed 28.65 points or 0.24% to settle at 11,746.11. The index rose 2,758.41 points or 23.5% on the year.
Consumer staples stocks rose 1.4%. Saputo (SAP.TO) rose 1.9%, Jean Contu (PJC.A.TO) gained 1.8% and Shopper's Choice (SC.TO) added 1.7%.
Healthcare stocks posted a 1.2% gain. MDS (MDS.TO) rose 3.4% on the session to lead the sector higher.
Black Diamond Income Fund (BDI.UN.TO) rallied 7.3% after being upgraded the stock to Strong Buy from Outperform at Raymond James.
Endeavor Silver (EDR.TO) fell 2.3% after brokerage Haywood initiated coverage of the stock with a Sector Perform rating.
Crocotta Energy (CTA.TO) gained 5% after it said it would be selling various non-core properties for C$33 million and announced it had signed a new bank credit facility for C$58 million.
Liquidation World (LQW.TO) declined 4.1% after the company reported a net loss of C$3.39 million, compared with a loss of C$2.71 million last year.
In economic news, the U.S. Labor Department said that jobless claims fell to 432,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 454,000. The decrease came as a surprise to economists, who had expected jobless claims to edge up to 460,000 from the 452,000 originally reported for the previous week.
There was no major economic data planned for Thursday in Canada. Next week's agenda will include the industrial product price index on Tuesday.
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