Toronto stocks reversed early gains and closed lower on Friday as investors took profits after a week in which Canada's main equity market witnessed strong gains on higher commodity prices.
The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index closed down 29.55 points, or 0.35 percent, at 8,468.01. Volume was a healthy 289 million shares worth C$4.2 billion. On the week, the index gained 1.21 percent. Market momentum was positive with advancers topping decliners 718 to 537.
"We've had a pretty strong market over the last few days. Probably people are looking to lock in some profits," said Gavin Graham, vice-president and director of investments with Guardian Group of Funds.
Seven of the TSX's 10 main subgroups lost ground, with the heavily weighted financial index down 1.04 percent.
Shares of Toronto-Dominion Bank fell 75 Canadian cents, or 1.7 percent, to C$44.25 and Canadian Imperial Bank of Canada retreated 91 Canadian cents, or 1.3 percent, to C$65.19.
Energy issues gave back some of this week's gains, falling 0.43 percent on Friday. Oil patch services company ShawCor Ltd was down 25 Canadian cents, or 2 percent, at C$12.75 while Petro-Canada sagged 62 Canadian cents, or 1 percent, to C$58.53.
On the upside, materials rose 1.02 percent as precious metal prices edged up on the back of a weakening US dollar.
Nearly every gold miner rose, with Miramar Mining up 10 Canadian cents, or 7.5 percent, at C$1.43 and Eldorado Gold Corp up 17 Canadian cents, or 5 percent, at C$3.59.
"With the inflation numbers coming in about where people expected, thoughts were that the US Federal Reserve was not going to raise rates as much as people thought," said Graham.
"Therefore all the non-US dollar things like gold did very well."
Elsewhere in materials, Inco Ltd, the world's No. 2 nickel producer, received a boost as the price of nickel climbed more than 7.5 percent on worries about supply.
Inco stock rose C$1.79, or 3.8 percent, to C$47.89.
The blue-chip S&P/TSX index finished down 1.92 points, or 0.41 percent, at 469.89.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 38.89 points, or 0.37 percent, to 10,416.41, while the Nasdaq composite index was up 3.06 points, or 0.15 percent, at 1,986.73.