Blackberry, miners down

The Toronto stock market closed Friday with minor gains as investors sold off shares in mining companies and smartphone-maker BlackBerry. The S&P/TSX composite gained 9.48 points at 12,757.35, while the TSX Venture Exchange gained 3.37 points to 1106.35. The Canadian dollar rose US0.09¢ to US97.72¢. Also looming is the possibility of a resolution to the debt troubles in Cyprus could be in sight, as planning drags on into the weekend ahead of a Monday deadline. On the TSX, the information technology sector was the biggest drag, falling 2.8%, as BlackBerry shares fell 8%. The company, which formerly called itself Research In Motion, ended the session down $1.33 to $15.19, on the day its new BlackBerry Z10 touchscreen smartphone hit shelves in the United States. AT&T began selling the phone on Friday, more than six weeks after the company launched the devices elsewhere. TSX metals and mining stocks backed off 1%, with First Quantum Minerals dropping 48¢ to $20.12.

On Wall Street, uncertainties with the economic future of Cyprus didn’t shake investors. The Mediterranean island nation’s banks have now been closed for a week and the European Central Bank has threatened to cut off an emergency program supporting them if a solution is not found by Monday. Instead, U.S. earnings from Darden Restaurants, owner of the Olive Garden and Red Lobster chains, beat Wall Street expectations on earnings for the quarter Friday, as did luxury retailer Tiffany. And Nike said late Thursday that third-quarter profits spiked 55%. The Dow Jones industrials lifted 90.54 points to 14,512.03. The Nasdaq was ahead 22.40 points at 3245 and the S&P 500 index jumped 11.09 points to 1556.89. In commodities, the April crude contract rose US$1.26 to settle at US$93.71 a barrel.