Materials, which includes gold and base metal miners, fell 1.8 percent, while financial stocks rebounded, rising 0.4 percent. The market suffered its biggest drop of 2012 on Thursday as disappointing data raised fears about global growth.

"Yesterday was a bit of an overreaction - we're getting some reflex back from that today," said Craig Fehr, Canadian market strategist at Edward Jones in St. Louis, Missouri.

At about 11:30 a.m. (1530 GMT) the Toronto Stock Exchange was down 4.39 points, or 0.04 percent, at 11,403.93.

Financial stocks were lead by the Bank of Nova Scotia , up 1.1 percent to C$52.99.

Royal Bank of Canada rose 0.7 percent to C$51.67, recovering somewhat after negative news on Thursday. Canada's largest lender was among 15 of the world's biggest banks downgraded by ratings agency Moody's late on Thursday. The stock had fallen on Thursday as industry sources said the downgrades were imminent.

Gold miners fell on Friday as the price of spot gold edged lower.

Centerra's stock plunged nearly a third on news a parliamentary commission in Kyrgyzstan had alleged that its Kumtor mine was damaging the environment. The company said the allegations were without merit.

Centerra played the second biggest role of any TSX company in pulling the market lower. Barrick Gold, the world's top gold producer, had the biggest impact, falling 2.1 percent to C$38.66.

Helping support the market, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc rose 3.2 percent to C$48.03, recovering from a sharp selloff on Thursday that followed news it expected results from the second quarter to be weaker than those reported for its first.

Outside of the main index, Theratechnologies Inc's shares dropped nearly 60 percent after the Canadian drugmaker said its European partner Ferrer Internacional SA was withdrawing the marketing application for its drug for HIV patients.