Toronto stocks closed flat Friday after a thinly traded session. The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 2.95 points, or 0.04%, at 8,334.29. Volume was 149 million shares. For the week, the index was flat.

Gains in energy and resource issues were offset by a 0.63% decline in the heavily weighted financial group.

Royal Bank shares fell $2.60, or 4.13%, to $60.40 after the bank said its third quarter earnings slipped 5% despite growth in loans and deposits.

Bank of Nova Scotia, which reports its earnings next week, fell 61¢, or 1.63%, to $36.71.

However, TD Bank closed up $1.21, or 2.78% to $44.79, one day after the bank announced its plan to buy a majority stake in a U.S. bank.

Shares in CIBC gained 27¢, or 0.41%, to $66.47 after the bank said it has settled a class action lawsuit with its Visa cardholders for $16.5 million dollars.

The gold sector rose 1.42% helping underpin its broader materials group, which ended up 0.83%.

Energy issues rose 0.82% , as oil stemmed its five-day slide and moved higher on renewed supply concerns in the wake of fresh Iraqi pipeline attacks.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index inched up 6.23 points, or 0.41%, to end the week at 1,521.15.

On Wall Street, U.S. blue-chips closed at six-week highs on Friday, helped by reassuring consumer confidence data and a bounce in technology stocks, but volume was anemic before next week’s Republican convention in New York City.

Investors also were relieved about stabilizing oil prices as NYMEX crude futures remained around US$43 a barrel, nudging up just US8¢ to settle at US$43.18.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended up 21.60 points, or 0.21%, at 10,195.01. The S&P 500 was up 2.68 points, or 0.24%, at 1,107.77. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index closed up 9.17 points, or 0.49%, at 1,862.09.

For the week, the Dow rose 0.8%, while the S&P 500 added 0.9%. The Nasdaq rose 1.3%.