Toronto stocks fell again Friday as world markets slid further.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 96.07 points, or 0.7%, at 13,748.53, after having gained nearly 115 points earlier in the day.

The benchmark index dropped 5.7% in a week that included single-day losses of 400.17 points on Tuesday and 260.72 points on Thursday. It now hovers at late-June levels after touching a record 14,646.82 points last week.

The TSX is now up 6.5% year to date.

Nine of the 10 TSX 10 main groups finished lower on Friday, led by a 1% dip in financials and a 1.7% drop in the consumer staples sector. The energy and material groups were also lower, despite buoyant commodity prices.

The heavyweight energy group, slipped 0.4%, while the utilities sector held on for a 0.2% gain.

Bank of Nova Scotia dropped $1.03, or 2%, at $49.50, and Sun Life Financial fell $1.33, or 2.6%, at $49.34.

Among consumer staples, Loblaw slid $3.02, or 5.9%, to $48.48 after the grocer reported a lower second-quarter profit on Thursday and warned of more weakness ahead.

Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan reversed earlier gains to end down 43¢, or 0.5%, at $82.50 after reporting a higher second-quarter profit and boosting its outlook for the rest of the year.

BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion fell $7.20, or 3%, to $228.85.

On the upside, EnCana, which posted a jump in quarterly profit and boosted its outlook earlier this week, was up $1.15, or 1.8%, at $64.22 to lead all gainers.

Oil prices closed over US$77 a barrel, near an all-time high on Friday on technical buying and news of faster-than-expected economic growth. Light, sweet crude for September delivery rose US$2.07 to settle at US$77.02 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture bucked today’s losing trend. It rose 10.95 points, or 0.35%, to end at 3,163.25.

The Canadian dollar slipped 0.73 of a cent to US94.18¢ after falling 1.18¢ Thursday.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 208.1 points to 13,265.47, losing 585.53 points or 4.2% this week.

Wall Street got good news as the U.S. Commerce Department reported the American economy grew 3.4% during the second quarter, ahead of expectations of 3.3 per cent among economists.

However, the economic strength was seen as lessening the possibility that the U.S. Federal Reserve will lower interest rates this year.

The Nasdaq composite index was off 37.1 points to 2,562.24, and the S&P 500 index was down 23.71 points to 1,458.95 for a loss of 4.9% this week.