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A tote board displays the closing figure for the TSX for the year in Toronto, Dec. 31, 2012.Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press

The Toronto stock market pulled back sharply Friday, weighed down by metals and mining, gold and materials stocks.

The S&P/TSX composite index dropped 199.1 points to 15,266.40, while the Canadian dollar dipped 0.13 of a cent to 91.29 cents (U.S.).

Metals and mining was the leading decliner on the Toronto market, down 3.55 per cent even as December copper was flat at US$3.09 a pound.

The gold sector followed, down by 2.53 per cent as December bullion lost $10.30 to $1,216.60 an ounce. Meanwhile, the November crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 33 cents to $91.65 a barrel and the energy sector faded 2.11 per cent.

The big decline in the Toronto exchange came despite optimism in most global markets following Scotland's decision to remain part of the United Kingdom.

Fifty-five per cent of Scots voted against independence in the referendum Thursday, compared with 45 per cent in favour of separation.

The news gave relief to investors because it avoids uncertainty in the U.K economy and markets over the future value of the pound and public debt, among other issues.

"It certainly was believed by markets that this was the most profitable outcome," said Kash Pashootan, vice-president and portfolio manager at First Avenue Advisory in Ottawa, a Raymond James Company.

"What would've been catastrophic was if the vote was not what it was. In that case, you would've seen markets sell off considerably due to the unknown factor of how things would look moving forward."

He added that now, markets can generally move on from the economic risks associated with Scotland.

"The Scotland story is going to pass. It's not going to be a topic of interest in the short term, with the vote clearly stating that they're going to remain," said Pashootan.

Meanwhile, U.S. markets were mixed amid the stability from the vote and the IPO involving Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba.

The Dow Jones industrials was ahead 14.52 points at 17,280.51 after closing at an all-time high on Thursday. The Nasdaq dipped 13.64 points at 4,579.79 , and the S&P 500 index lost 0.86 of a point to 2,010.50, above its own record high from the previous day.

Alibaba's stock rose 36 per cent over its IPO price to open at $92.70 on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday morning. At that price the company would be worth $228.5-billion – more than the current market value of tech giants such as Amazon, Cisco, and eBay. Investment bankers arranging the IPO had set an opening price of $68 per share.

In other corporate news, TransCanada Corp. says costs for its long-delayed Keystone XL pipeline will likely balloon to as much as $10-billion (U.S.), up from $5.4-billion.

CEO Russ Girling told the Wall Street Journal that the price tag could rise to a "number that gets you into the high single digits to a 10 number" as the project remains in limbo. Company spokesman Shawn Howard has confirmed those remarks, adding the higher costs will be passed on to refiners and consumers in the end.

Keystone XL would link 830,000 barrels per day of mostly oil sands crude to an existing network that feeds into the lucrative U.S. Gulf Coast refining market.

Environmental concerns over the project range from a potential spill's impact on drinking water to the enabling of further oil sands development and its accompanying increase in greenhouse gas emissions. Backers of the project say it would create construction jobs and displace crude imports to the U.S. from unfriendly regimes. Shares in TransCanada gained more than two per cent, or $1.29, to $62.10 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

In economic news, Statistics Canada says the country's annual inflation rate was 2.1 per cent in August, unchanged from the previous month. However, core inflation, the number the Bank of Canada closely monitors and which excludes some items from the volatile energy and food categories, rose by 2.1 per cent, after an increase of 1.7 per cent in July.

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