Stocks in Toronto rebounded to finish higher in synch with Wall Street Friday, as newfound optimism over U.S. financial firms over the past week fueled a powerful four-day rally. The S&P/TSX Composite Index (CA:ISPTX: news , chart , profile ) rose 21 points, or 0.3%, to end at 8,303 on Friday. Four straight sessions of gains left the index 9.4% higher on the week. On the Toronto Stock Exchange, advancing stocks outpaced decliners by 874 to 638 on Friday, with 262 issues unchanged. Telecoms led the gains, advancing 1%, followed by financials, which rose 0.9%. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 53 points to end at 7,223, for a 9% gain for the week. The S&P 500 Index gained 5.8 points, or 0.1%, to end at 756, jumping more than 10.7% on the week. The Nasdaq Composite gained 5 points, or 0.4%, to end at 1,431 on Friday, putting on a 10.6% weekly gain. The battered financial sector seemed to have found relief this week after both Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. issued better-than-expected outlooks. Also, lawmakers urged action to remove mark-to-market accounting, which would allow financial firms to revalue the toxic assets that plague their balance sheets. Among financials in Canada, Manulife Financial Corp. (CA:MFC: news , chart , profile ) gained 0.9% and Royal Bank of Canada (CA:RY: news , chart , profile ) rose 1.3%. Other sectors didn't fare as well on Friday. The energy sector slumped 0.9% and the metals and mining sector fell 1.9%. Crude-oil futures finished down 78 cents, or 1.7%, at $46.25 a barrel, as investors speculated whether the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will lower output further at its meeting on Sunday. See Futures Movers. Shares of Talisman Energy Inc. (CA:TLM: news , chart , profile ) fell 1.5%, and UTS Energy (CA:UTS: news , chart , profile ) fell 2.4%. And while gold eked out some gains Friday, mining shares didn't follow through. See Metals Stocks. Lundin Mining Corp. (CA:LUN: news , chart , profile ) fell 7.9% and Yamana Gold Inc. (CA:YRI: news , chart , profile ) dropped 1.5%. In economic news, 83,000 workers lost their jobs in February, bringing total losses since the peak of last October to 295, Statistics Canada reported on Friday. The unemployment rate rose 0.5 percentage points to 7.7% in February. Separately, Canada's trade deficit widened to C$993 million in January from C$652 million in December, as both exports and imports fell, led by a sharp decline in automotive products trade, the statistics office reported. Overall, exports fell 9.0% to C$31.7 billion, while imports fell 7.9% to C$32.7 billion, the data showed. "The further move into deficit is consistent with an increasing drag on Canada's growth from abroad, notably from the U.S., that is expected to weigh on GDP through at least mid-year," said analysts at Action Economics.

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