North American stock markets closed sharply higher Friday as investors looked for bargains, after the sell off earlier in the week.

Toronto’s S&P/TSX composite index moved up 94.62 points to 13,798.5 after tumbling 3.1% in the past two sessions.

Overall, the TSX lost 321 points or 2.27% this past week after hitting a fresh record high on Monday.

Interest rate jitters have shaken investor confidence this week as bonds sold off and traders became convinced that a hoped-for rate cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve is not in the cards.

On the TSX, the financial sector was the leading advancer, up 1% after four days of declines.

TD Bank shares rose 87¢ to $72.94 and Royal Bank jumped 87¢ to $56.76.

The energy sector moved up a slight 0.25% even as the July crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange lost $2.17 to US$64.76 per barrel after news that Cyclone Gonu had spared major oil installations in the Gulf of Oman and alleviated supply worries.

Canadian Natural Resources gained 61¢ to $70.25.

The gold sector was the only declining group, as the August bullion contract on the Nymex faded $14.90 to US$650.30 an ounce. Kinross Gold eased 10¢ to $13.58.

CanWest Global Communications confirmed the sale of its 70% stake in CanWest MediaWorks New Zealand for the equivalent of $296 million to HT Media Ltd., an Australian private equity outfit which publishes India’s Hindustan Times. CanWest shares were down 21¢ to $10.30.

Patheon shares were unchanged at $4.26 after the pharmaceutical manufacturer reported a quarterly loss of US$22 million on revenue of US$181 million, down 5% from a year ago.

Shares in Nortel Networks were down 16¢ to $27.54 following a report the company would be fined as much as US$100 million by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for accounting fraud.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index declined 3.22 points to 3,190.55.

The Canadian dollar rose 0.3 of a cent to US94.32¢.

In New York, U.S. stocks closed higher after a three-day slide.

The Dow Jones industrial average shot up 157.66 points, or 1.19%, to end at 13,424.39. The S&P 500 jumped 16.95 points, or 1.14%, to finish at 1,507.67. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index climbed 32.16 points, or 1.27%, to close at 2,573.54.

For the week, the Dow ended down 1.78%, the S&P 500 fell 1.87% and the Nasdaq lost 1.54%.