Toronto stocks closed higher Friday as rising gold and technology shares offset weaker jobs numbers in Canada and the U.S. The S&P/TSX composite index rose 17.65 points to close at 7,612.50, a 15-month high.

On the week the TSX gained 102.18 points.

Technology stocks rose 1.87% and gold stocks closed up 2.27% as bullion prices increased US$4.70 to US$378.70 an ounce in New York.

Tech bellwether Nortel Networks 37¢ to $5.60. Nortel also benefited from a Standard & Poor’s ratings outlook upgrade and has jumped over the past three days thanks to a $1 billion contract it won in the United States this week.

Exfo Electro-Optical Engineering rose 24¢, or 5.6%, to $4.51, while Descartes gained 31¢ to $3.72.

Among gold stocks, Bema Gold advanced 11¢ to $3.12, and Kinross added 46¢ to $10.84.

Toronto volume was about 308 million shares worth $2.7 billion, and market sentiment was positive as 651 issues advanced and 521 declined.

Toronto stocks slid early in the day after release of August jobs reports in Canada and the United States.

Canada’s unemployment rate rose to 8% in August from 7.8% in July and 19,000 jobs were lost.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index climbed 17.73 points to 1,342.30.

On Wall Street, stocks were dragged down by a weak August jobs report.

The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average fell 84.56 points to 9,503.34. The broader S&P 500 index fell 6.6 points to 1,021.37. The tech heavy Nasdaq composite index slipped10.85 points at 1,858.12.

The Nasdaq snapped a string of seven up sessions. The S&P 500 fell after notching gains in the previous eight and the Dow fell after rising in the previous five sessions.

Despite their drops for the day, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 both had a fourth straight week of gains, while the Dow racked up its fifth.