Toronto stocks closed lower for the fifth straight session on Friday. The S&P/TSX composite index fell 16.57 points, or 0.17%, to 9,533.10. Volume was 233 million shares.

For the week, the benchmark index finished down 2.3%.

North American markets will be closed tomorrow for the Good Friday holiday.

Seven of the 10 TSX groups closed lower. Minor gains in the energy and industrials groups, failed offset declines in information technology, utilities, materials, and the heavily weighted financials group.

Technology shares slipped 0.86%, while utilities fell 1.18%.

Research In Motion was the largest drag on the index, falling $2.44, or 2.6%, to $90.62, as the company was unable to escape recent concern about growing competition for its BlackBerry wireless e-mail device.

Among individual stocks, ATI Technologies fell 29¢ or 1.42% to $20.18. The company said second-quarter net income rose 20% to $57.2-million as demand from makers of personal computers and digital consumers segments boosted sales. The computer graphics company also said it’s planning to buy back up to 10% of its shares

Royal Group Technologies Ltd. rose 66¢ or 5.8% to $11.94. The company said founder and ex-chairman, Vic De Zen, agreed to repay more than $9.8 million and resign from the board of directors amid a criminal probe into corporate fraud and theft allegations. He also agreed to convert his multiple voting shares to common shares.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index fell 4.19 points, or 0.22%, to end at 1,934.98.

On Wall Street, U.S. technology stocks were little changed on Thursday, while gains in crude oil prices weighed on blue chips.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 13.15 points, or 0.13%, to end at 10,442.87 and the S&P 500 was down 1.11 points, or 0.59%, to close at 1,171.42. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index was up just 0.84 of a point, or 0.04%, to finish at 1,991.06.

For the week, the Dow ended down 1.8%, the S&P fell 1.5% and Nasdaq was off 0.8%.