Toronto stocks closed higher for the first time in five sessions on Friday as bargain hunters descended on the market and stemmed its slide, helping offset a weak Canadian employment report and jitters over the Madrid bomb attacks.
The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index closed up 88.16 points, or 1.04 percent, at 8,592.04 on a volume of 255 million shares worth C$3 billion.
After a four-day selloff, worsened by Thursday's deadly transit bombings in Spain, bargain-hunting was the order of the day. Technology stocks, walloped by concerns they had run too far too fast, were the main beneficiaries.
The tech sector closed up 3.24 percent, buoyed by strong quarterly results from software giant Oracle Corp, which reported an 11 percent rise in profits late Thursday.
Celestica Inc. gained C$1.47, or 6.86 percent, to C$22.89 while ATI Technologies rose 91 Canadian cents, or 4.95 percent, to C$19.30.
The search for bargains helped the market shrug off data showing the economy lost 21,200 jobs in February, compared with expectations for a 15,000-job gain. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 7.4 percent, as expected.
The data weighed on the Canadian dollar which slumped against the US currency.
Overall, nine of the TSX's 10 subgroups were higher with more than 1 percent gains by seven sectors, including energy, industrials, materials and health-care. The utilities group was the lone decliner, falling 0.59 percent.
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