Rebounding financial shares helped the Toronto Stock Exchange’s main index to a higher close on Friday.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 59.21 points, or 0.73%, at 8,117.03, with five of its 10 main groups ending higher.

For the week, the key index fell 12.4%.

Financial shares rallied late in the session after U.S. insurer Hartford Financial Services Group raised its 2008 profit forecast and said it had more than enough capital to withstand significant further deterioration in equity markets.

CIBC shares added to gains recorded in the previous session and rose 7.7% to $49.75, while Bank of Nova Scotia rose 4.3% to $33.65.

Commodities-related sub-indexes fell, with energy dropping 2.5% as the price of a crude oil futures contract for January slid US$2.86 to $40.81 a barrel.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index fell 13.55 points, or 1.94%, to 684.31.

The Canadian dollar closed up 0.44 cents at US78.68¢, despite a report that showed the economy shed 70,600 jobs last month, the biggest one-month drop since 1982, and the unemployment rate rose to 6.3%.

In New York, U.S. stocks jumped as investors bet that a steep drop in oil prices will boost consumer spending, and offsetting government data showing half a million jobs were lost in November.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 259.18 points, or 3.09%, to end at 8,635.42. The S&P 500 Index climbed 30.85 points, or 3.65%, to 876.07. The Nasdaq composite index rose 63.75 points, or 4.41%, to 1,509.31.

For the week, the Dow fell 2.2%, the S&P 500 lost 2.3% and the Nasdaq slipped 1.7%.