The Canadian Press

The Toronto stock market closed slightly higher Friday as investors tried to take the Dubai credit crisis in stride, hoping that it won’t stall the global economic recovery.

“Really, after a pretty good dunking yesterday, the TSX is holding in quite nicely today,” said Blair Falconer, portfolio manager at HSBC Securities Canada.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed 27.61 points higher at 11,464.41 after tumbling 200 points Thursday in the wake of an announcement that Dubai World, a government investment company, had asked creditors to postpone its forthcoming payments on US$60 billion in debt until May.

Thursday’s loss was responsible for a TSX loss of 114.92 points or 1% this past week.

New York markets finished sharply lower Friday, catching up with the losses racked up by other global markets after being closed Thursday over the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday.

The Dow Jones industrial averaged closed down 154.48 points at 10,309.92 at the end of a shortened session. The blue chip index was flat for the week, up a slight eight points.

The Dubai announcement Wednesday stoked fears of a potential default and contagion around the global financial system, particularly in emerging markets. But a day later, investors were taking a harder look at what the Dubai debt crises means.

“This is tantamount to a sovereign default and so that’s what makes it a lot more serious than most,” added Falconer.

He observed that investors felt better Friday knowing that Canadian financials have limited or no exposure to the Dubai debt and “also the fact that the European banks, which do have exposure, cleared the decks fairly quickly by saying here’s what our exposure is.”

“People were able to say OK, it’s spread around fairly well; it’s not one country taking a major hit; it looks OK.”

The Canadian dollar was down 0.09 of a cent to US94.21¢ after a flight to the greenback had sent the loonie down US1.35¢ on Thursday.

The financial sector led gainers, up 0.8% with investors confident the Canadian banking sector won’t be affected by the Dubai issue. CIBC (TSX:CM) gained 80¢ to $68.80 while Royal Bank (TSX:RY) advanced 82¢ to $56.70.

Railway stocks took the industrials sector ahead 0.91%, with Canadian National Railways (TSX:CNR) up 64¢ to $55.64. CN was meeting with the union representing 1,700 locomotive engineers in advance of a midnight Friday night strike deadline.

Commodities were also weaker, but well off early lows, with the January crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange falling $1.91 from Wednesday’s close to US$76.05 a barrel. The energy sector was off 0.12%.

The gold sector was off 1.83% as bullion prices also gave up ground with the December gold contract on the Nymex down $12.80 to US$1,174.20 an ounce. Iamgold (TSX:IMG) lost 36¢ to $19.68 while Centerra Gold (TSX:CG) faded 24¢ to $13.04.

December copper was down seven¢ to US$3.09 a pound and the base metals sector fell per 0.92%. Ivanhoe Mines (TSX:IVN) lost 48¢ to $12.51.

The TSX Venture Exchange moved down 13.77 points to 1,405.6.

New York’s Nasdaq composite index lost 37.61 points to 2,138.44 while the S&P 500 was down 19.14 points at 1,091.49.

The latest trouble on markets came as the U.S. kicked off the unofficial start to the holiday shopping season — coincidentally called Black Friday. Investors will be tracking news from retailers for insights into how much consumers will spend in the coming month. Consumer spending is the biggest driver of the U.S. economy.

European bourses advanced following steep losses on Thursday. London’s FTSE 100 was 0.99% higher, Frankfurt’s DAX was ahead 1.27% and the Paris CAC 40 was ahead 1.15%.

In economic news, Statistics Canada says the country’s current account fell to a record deficit in the third quarter to a seasonally adjusted $13.1 billion. The agency says the shortfall was largely due to a $4-billion deficit in the exchange of goods, as imports outstripped exports.

On the corporate front, Mosaid Technologies Inc. (TSX:MSD) said Thursday it earned $5 million or 49¢ per diluted share for the quarter ended Oct. 31 compared with a loss of $3.4 million or 33¢ per diluted share a year ago. Revenue in the quarter totalled $17.3 million, up from $13.8 million. Its shares ran ahead $1.20 to $19.06.

Canwest Global Communications (TSXV:CGS) said overall revenue in its latest quarter fell to $624 million, down 13% from a year earlier. The media company has put its conventional television operations under court protection while working out a restructuring plan with creditors.

@page_break@Canwest’s net loss for its fiscal fourth quarter was reduced to $111 million from $1.02 billion a year ago, when the company recognized a number of extraordinary expenses. Its shares on the Venture exchange were unchanged at 8¢.