The materials sector, home to miners, rose 0.9 percent.

Barrick Gold Corp, up 1.2 percent to C$33.61, and Goldcorp Inc, up 0.5 percent to C$35.33, were among the top advancers on the index, as gold prices recovered from earlier lows.

"As our tiptoes are over the (US) "fiscal cliff" and we're looking over the abyss, the markets are upset obviously and this is sort of putting a damper on the stocks," said John Ing, president of Maison Placements Canada. The 'cliff' refers to steep US tax hikes and spending cuts due to take effect in January, unless policy makers agree to avert them.

"But we've had a mixed reaction in Canada, mainly because the resources have been much better, like gold for example, which is hedging into the uncertainty (around the budget talks)," he said, noting gold miners have been under pressure for the last two weeks.

The task of picking up the pieces of the fiscal talks, and reassuring global financial markets that were shaky early Friday, is likely to fall largely to President Barack Obama after Republicans abandoned their own proposed fix championed by House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner.

At 10:41 a.m. (1541 GMT), the Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index was up 15.41 points, or 0.12 percent, at 12,403.85. Six of the 10 sectors were higher, including energy stocks, which rose 0.1 percent.

Dragging on the downside, RIM plunged around 14 percent to C$12.01 following the BlackBerry maker's Thursday earnings announcement, when the company outlined plans to change the way it charges for services.

Center>Copyright Reuters, 2012