Mining a bright spot aMid fiscal worries

The Toronto stock market closed little changed Friday as mining stocks benefited from the release of encouraging Chinese economic data. Elsewhere, the market stalled amid concerns about whether the U.S. can avoid a fiscal crisis at the end of the month.

The S&P/TSX composite index was 7.55 points higher at 12,296.72, while the TSX Venture Exchange climbed 9.61 points to 1,183.62.

released its preliminary China Purchasing Managers’ Index for December, which showed greater expansion in the manufacturing sector of the world’s second-biggest economy. The index rose to 50.9 from November’s 50.5.

But the Canadian dollar was down US0.18¢ to US101.37¢.

The agency said the slide reflected drops in the aerospace product and parts, motor vehicle assembly and primary metal industries. These declines were partly offset by higher sales in petroleum and coal products as well as the wood product industries.

U.S. indexes finished in the red as the positive Chinese data were overshadowed by budget talks in Washington between President Barack Obama and key Republican lawmakers.

A deal must be reached to avoid going over the so-called “fiscal cliff,” which would involve the automatic imposition of hundreds of billions of dollars in spending cuts and tax increases that could plunge the world’s largest economy back into recession and depress economies around the world.

The Dow Jones industrials lost 35.71 points to 13,135.01, the Nasdaq fell 20.83 points to 2,971.33, paced by a drop of almost 4% in Apple Inc. shares despite what some could interpret as a positive for the company — the return of Google Maps to the iPhone.

The S&P 500 index was off 5.87 points at 1,413.58.

Other data out Friday morning showed that U.S. factories rebounded in November from hurricane Sandy. The Federal Reserve says factory output increased 1.1% in November from October, offsetting a 1% decline the previous month that was blamed on the storm.

Total industrial output at factories, mines and utilities also rose 1.1% last month.

The base metals sector led advancers, up about 2.4% as commodity prices advanced on news from the Chinese manufacturing report. China has a huge appetite for commodities, which has sent prices higher for oil and metals in the past, along with energy and mining stocks on the TSX.

March copper was up 2¢ at US$3.68 a pound and ran up $3.13 to $69.83 while

was up 71¢ to $35.28.