MONEY IN BRIEF

Currencies

OTTAWA — These are indicative wholesale rates for foreign currency provided by the Bank of Canada on Friday. Quotations in Canadian funds. Australia dollar 0.9622

Brazil real 0.3514

China renminbi 0.1896

Euro 1.4998

Hong Kong dollar 0.168

India rupee 0.01828

Indonesia rupiah 0.00009

Japan yen 0.01166

Malaysia ringgit 0.3138

Mexico peso 0.06518

N.Z. dollar 0.9027

Norway krone 0.1558

Peruvian new sol 0.3896

Russia rouble 0.01993

Saudi riyal 0.3506

Singapore dollar 0.9583

South Africa rand 0.09371

South Korean won 0.00117 Sweden krona 0.1459 Switzerland franc 1.3136 Taiwanese dollar 0.04269 Thailand baht 0.04004

Turkey lira 0.2463

U.K. pound 1.689

U.S. dollar 1.3154

Vietnam dong 0.000056

The markets today

TORONTO — Canada’s largest stock index ended a down week in the black Friday as gold pushed the loonie and the materials sector higher and oil endured its sixth consecutive week of declining prices.

The January crude contract was unchanged at US$56.68 per barrel Friday but was down almost six per cent for the week as it ended an unprecedented 12-day run of falling prices. West Texas Intermediate was down 26 per cent from its peak in early October.

The December natural gas contract was up 23.4 cents at US$4.27 per mmBTU.

While some small energies company moved up, the energy sector on the TSX was down half a per cent on the day as bigger names weakened with the West Canadian Select closing marginally higher from its low.

“So I think it’s just a question of investors wrapping their head around Canadian energy given the particular challenges that we’re facing with take-away capacity being so constrained,” said Patrick Blais, senior portfolio manager at Manulife Asset Management. Low Canadian oil prices will force producers to cut production next year which will have a significant economic impact, he added. “It’s a tough week to get any momentum or traction behind the Canadian market given that a lot of the bullishness surrounding investing in Canada was based on oil fundamentals coming into a healthy position and now that’s basically been thrown out and we’re going to face a tough environment to find investors to step back into Canada given the challenging prospects.”

The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 10.62 points to 15,155.50, but down from 15.274.44 a week ago.

The volatile health-care sector closed off two per cent Friday while technology and consumer discretionary rebounded. Materials and telecommunications also closed higher.

The December gold contract was up US$8 at US$1,223 an ounce and the December copper contract was up 5.20 cents at US$2.80 a pound.

The Canadian dollar traded at an average of 76.02 cents US compared with an average of 75.75 cents US on Thursday.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 123.95 points to 25,413.22. The S&P 500 index was up 6.07 points at 2,736.27, while the Nasdaq composite was down 11.16 points at 7,247.87. The U.S. market got a brief boost after U.S. President Donald Trump was hopeful of a deal with China to resolve their trade dispute, but later retreated.