Stocks in Canada’s largest centre came off their highs of the day, given an injection of strength by health-care and tech issues.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index advanced 16.69 points to finish the day, week, month, and third quarter at 15,634.94
The Canadian dollar dipped 0.28 cents to 80.15 cents U.S
The gains put the Toronto market on track to rise 3% in September, its best month since July 2016.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International gained 76 cents, or 4.5%, to $17.85, after the company completed the sale of Inova Pharmaceuticals to Pacific Equity Partners and the Carlyle Group.
Canopy Growth Corporation, for its part, took on a penny to $10.72.
Shares of BlackBerry Ltd. climbed 95 cents, or 7.3%, to $13.95 building on a 12.7% advance on Thursday when the company reported stronger-than-expected quarterly profit. Both RBC and CIBC on Friday raised their price targets on the stock.
What’s more, shares of Constellation Software climbed $2.25 to $680.49.
Some of the most influential movers on the index were its bank shares.
Royal Bank of Canada gained 67 cents to $96.60 and Bank of Montreal gained 55 cents to $94.52.
Shares of Bombardier Inc rose 5.5 cents, or 2.5%, to $2.27, after the company sealed a deal to sell up to 50 Q400 turboprop planes to India's SpiceJet.
The World Trade Organization opened a dispute settlement panel to rule on Brazil's complaint that Canada has hurt its commercial jet industry by subsidizing Bombardier's CSeries jets, the Brazilian foreign ministry said.
Earlier this week, the U.S. Commerce Department slapped 220 percent preliminary anti-subsidiary duties on Bombardier's CSeries jets, while the company has also missed out on a merger of its rail unit with Germany's Siemens.
Among resource stocks, Hudbay Minerals gave back nine cents, or nearly 1%, to $9.26, while IAMGOLD docked 66 cents, or 8%, to $7.63.
Among energy concerns, Cenovus Energy fell nine cents to $12.51.
On the economic calendar, Statistics Canada reported the economy was essentially unchanged in July as 11 of 20 industrial sectors grew.
The agency’s industrial product price index rose 0.3% in August, mainly due to higher prices for energy and petroleum products.
The Raw Materials Price Index increased 1.0%, primarily due to higher prices for crude energy products.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange strengthened 5.11 points to 781.23
Seven of the 12 TSX subgroups were positive to end the day, with health-care more robust 1.5%, information technology clicking 1.3% higher, while financials were up 0.6%.
The five laggards were weighed most by materials, settling 0.6%, gold, down 0.4%, and energy, subsiding 0.2%.
ON WALLSTREET
The S&P 500 closed at a record Friday, helped by gains in technology stocks on the last trading day of the quarter.
The Dow Jones Industrials recovered 23.89 points to 22,405.09, within 0.1% of its record high. Goldman Sachs contributed to the most to gains in the index.
The index posted quarterly gains of 4.9% its eighth straight quarter of gains for the first time since 1997.
The S&P 500 picked up 9.3 points to 2,519.36, also its eighth straight quarter of gains.
The NASDAQ added 42.51 points to 6,495.96,, also an all-time high.
The S&P 500 rose nearly 4% in the quarter, also its eighth straight quarter of gains. The NASDAQ gained almost 5.8% for the quarter, its fifth straight positive quarter since 2015.
The S&P and Dow rose about 2% in September, while the NASDAQ gained about 1% for the month.
In economic news, the Federal Reserve's preferred measure of inflation posted its slowest pace of annual increase since November 2015.
The personal consumption expenditures index, excluding food and energy, rose 1.3% in the 12 months through August, according to the Department of Commerce.
The Chicago Purchasing Managers Index unexpectedly rose to 65.2 in September. The final read on consumer sentiment from the University of Michigan showed a slight decline from to 95.1 in September from 96.8 in August.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year Treasury note slumped, giving a slight lift to yields to 2.34% from Thursday’s 2.31%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices inch two cents a barrel to $51.58 U.S.
Gold prices fell six dollars to $1,282.70 U.S. an ounce
