Oil stocks made a valiant, but unsuccessful, effort to pull Toronto markets into the black Friday, while blue chips helped New York markets close the week on an up note.

At close, the S&P/TSX was off just 3.25 points or 0.04% at 8588.4, coming back from being down about 20 points in the afternoon. For the week, it gained 58.5 points. The TSX Venture exchange advanced 9.54 points or 0.62% to 1553.94.

The Dow Jones industrial average held on to close up 8.34 points or 0.08% at 10047.24. On the week, the index fell 2.3%. The Nasdaq lost 6.95 points or 0.37% to 1879.48, a drop of 1.6% on the week; the S&P 500 edged up 1.75 points or 0.16% to 1110.11.

The Canadian dollar put in another good day, adding 0.25 of a cent to US78.42¢ for a gain of 1.35¢ on the week. Friday’s close was just 0.25 of a cent below the currency’s 10.5-year high set Jan. 9.

On Bay Street, the TSX’s energy sub-group closed up 0.58% as crude futures closed out the week at a new record close in New York, with the November contract at US$48.88 a barrel, up 42¢. This is the highest closing level for crude futures since the Aug. 19 close of US$48.70, but prices are still below the intraday all-time high of US$49.40 from Aug. 20.

Among the big gainers on the TSX was Petro Canada, one the TSX’s most active stocks; it gained 40¢ or 0.62% to $64.90 on volume of more than 8.6 million shares. That put it above the federal government’s announced sale price, $64.50 a share, for its remaining 19% stake in the integrated oil company. It was also reported that Petrocan will be investing $3.6 billion for a stake in a massive Russian natural gas liquids field.

Technology stocks, however, were the main drag Friday on the TSX. They fell 1.66% with Nortel Networks losing 17¢ or 3.77% to $4.34 on volume of more than 11.8 million shares.

In New York, stocks ended lower on the week, battered by another record high for oil, a steady stream of profit warnings from such household names as Colgate and Wendy’s, with a fresh batch of downbeat revenue forecasts out of the semiconductor sector further undermining sentiment.