Another rollercoaster day for North American stock markets ended in a loss of more than 500 points for the TSX Friday, putting the index’s weekly drop at a massive 1,700 points.

This morning’s announcement that the federal government would buy up to $25 billion in mortgage-backed securities failed to boost investor confidence, as the S&P/TSX composite index briefly fell below the 9,000-point mark for the first time since January 2005.

The index finished the day down 535.02 points, or 5.57%, at 9,065.16.

Leading the drop was the materials group, which fell 10.59% as it felt the impacts of slumping gold and silver prices. Gold futures plummeted US$27.50 to close at US$859 on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The sub-gold index closed down 12.1%.

Goldcorp Inc. shares suffered a drop of $4.81—almost 14% — to close at $29.69, while Barrick Gold Corp. shares fell $5.17 — nearly 13% — to close at $35.22. Teck Cominco Ltd. shares dropped more than 14%, ending the day at $16.36.

The energy group fell 8.43% as oil futures continued to slide. Crude for November delivery plunged US$8.89 a barrel to close at US$77.70 a barrel on the Nymex.

Within the group, shares of Petro-Canada, which have lost more than half their value in the past three months, fell another 8% Friday to close at $23.70. Suncor Energy Inc. shares shed 6% to close at $26.09.

Lower commodities prices sent the Canadian dollar down sharply, closing down more than US2.5¢ at US84.69¢.

The financials group was down 3.33%, led by an 11.94% plunge for shares of Manulife Financial, which closed at $26.63.

Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. managed to buck the trend Friday, with shares up $10.09, or 3.28%, to close at $318.

Junior stocks failed to escape the selloff. The S&P/TSX Venture composite index fell 71.47 points, or 6.82%, to close at 975.81.

In New York, more losses for the Dow Jones industrial average and the S&P 500 index put the week into the history books as the largest ever weekly drop for the indexes.

The Dow dropped 128 points, or 1.49%, to close at 8,451.19, while the S&P 500 shed 10.7 points, or 1.18%, to close at 899.22. The Nasdaq composite index managed to end the day with a gain of 4.39 points, or 0.27%, to close at 1,649.51.

For the week, both the Dow and the S&P 500 fell 18%, while the Nasdaq slid 15.3%.