Toronto stocks eked out modest gains in thin trading Thursday ahead of Friday’s U.S. Independence Day holiday. The S&P/TSX composite index finished up 9.48 points at 6,999.78.

Toronto volume was light at 141 million shares.

The heavily weighted financial sector rose 0.4% and energy stocks ended 0.5% ahead.

Royal Bank, the market’s biggest stock, rose 83¢ to $57.74, while Bank of Nova Scotia gained 35¢ to close at $60.05.

Energy stocks rose even though a deal looked close to avoid a Nigerian union’s threat to cut off oil supplies from one of the world’s largest exporters.

EnCana jumped 18¢ to $50.93, while Imperial Oil added $1 to $46.70.

The TSX Venture composite index slipped 2.43 points to 1,109.70 on a volume of 31 million shares.

In New York, trading was light ahead of the Independence Day weekend and ended three hours early. Stocks closed lower as investors were unnerved by a larger-than-expected jump in unemployment.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 72.63 to close at 9,070.21.

The broader market also retreated. The Nasdaq composite index fell 15.27 to 1,663.46. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index declined 8.05 to 985.70.

But the major U.S. indices and averages ended the week higher because of the buying that took place Tuesday and Wednesday. The Dow ended the week up 0.9%, while the Nasdaq climbed 2.4% and the S&P rose 1%.

U.S. markets are closed Friday.