By Fergal Smith
(Reuters) -Canada's main stock index clawed back some of its large weekly decline on Friday, in a broad-based move as investors welcomed cooler-than-expected U.S. inflation data and looked past rising domestic political uncertainty.
The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index ended up 185.54 points, or 0.8%, at 24,599.48, after six straight days of declines.
For the week, the index was down 2.7%, its second straight weekly decline and its biggest since September 2023.
"Certainly a strong day today and a lot of that is because of what we learned south of the border here in the U.S.," said Angelo Kourkafas, senior investment strategist at Edward Jones in St. Louis, Missouri.
U.S. stocks also rallied as a smaller-than-expected increase in the U.S. personal consumption expenditures price index eased worries about the path of interest rates. Recent signs of sticky inflation had on Wednesday contributed to the Federal Reserve signaling a slower pace of rate cuts.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau looked set to lose power early next year after a key ally said he would move to bring down the minority Liberal government and trigger an election.
"I think 2025, the key thing is going to be political uncertainty in Canada and the U.S., with what's going to happen with trade and tariffs," Kourkafas said. "In the short term, some of the developments could create headlines and some market fluctuations but really it is long-term fundamental drivers that will determine the outcomes."
All ten major sectors ended higher, including a gain of 1.3% for the materials group as a pull-back in the U.S. dollar boosted gold and copper prices.
Consumer discretionary and technology also added 1.3%. The latter was helped by a 23.1% surge in the shares of BlackBerry Ltd after the security software firm beat quarterly revenue estimates.
(Reporting by Fergal Smith in Toronto and Ragini Mathur in Bengaluru; Editing by Mohammed Safi Shamsi and Alistair Bell)