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The Toronto Stock Exchange Broadcast Centre is shown in Toronto on June 28, 2013. The Toronto stock market headed for steep declines at the open Tuesday as the TSX reopens following the Thanksgiving holiday and catches up to the heavy losses racked up on New York markets in the previous session.Aaron Vincent Elkaim/The Canadian Press

The Toronto stock market was higher Friday, adding to a string of solid gains as investors continue to buy up stocks oversold during the course of a fall selloff.

The S&P/TSX composite index was ahead 77.56 points to 14,420.53 after charging ahead about 650 points over the last three sessions.

BlackBerry (TSX:BB) was a drag on the TSX. The smartphone maker posted a profit of one cent a share after adjustments, beating expectations for a loss of five cents a share, but revenue was short of estimates. The company narrowed its net loss to US$148 million or 28 cents, an improvement from a year ago loss of $4.4 billion or $8.39 in the same period a year ago. BlackBerry's revenue was US$793 million versus analyst predictions of US$931 million, and down from $1.19 billion a year ago. Its stock was close to the worst levels of the session, down 74 cents or 6.34 per cent to $10.93 on heavy volume of 6.2 million shares.

The Canadian dollar was down 0.02 of a cent to 86.21 cents US.

U.S. indexes made slight headway after the U.S. Federal Reserve said that it will be "patient" in deciding when to hike rates.

The Dow Jones industrials climbed 9.24 points to 17,787.39 after the blue chip index soared 421 points on Thursday. The Nasdaq gained 9.38 points to 4,757.78 and the S&P 500 index edged up 4.5 points to 2,065.75.

Stock markets in North America have enjoyed a series of big gains in the last full week of trading for 2014. Investors got a big dose of reassurance from the Fed's mid-week announcement on interest rates. While a hike in short-term rates from near zero is widely expected around the middle of 2015, there have been concerns the Fed would move even earlier.

The Fed said economic data will determine when it hikes and Fed chair Janet Yellen said Wednesday that she foresaw no rate hike in the first quarter of 2015.

On the Toronto market, the energy sector by far has been the biggest beneficiary of a three-day run of bargain-hunting that has sent the component up about 12 per cent for this week. The sector is still down 20 per cent year to date, having been positive the same amount mid-summer before oil prices started to collapse amid demand worries but especially because of a huge supply imbalance.

Crude prices have plunged almost 50 per cent since mid-year highs but seemed to find support around the US$54 a barrel level this week. On Friday, oil in New York climbed $1.73 to US$55.84 a barrel and the energy sector gained two per cent.

"Oil has stabilized here but it really feels like we're just in a consolidation within a downtrend," said Colin Cieszynski, chief strategist at CMC Markets.

"If you think about a staircase pattern where you have had the selloff, then it goes sideways for awhile, and you can't rule out another drop. And in particular, we're just too close to that $50 level to not test it."

The base metals sector was ahead 1.5 per cent while March copper gained three cents to US$2.89 a pound.

February gold was up $4.10 to US$1,198.90 an ounce and the gold sector rose 0.7 per cent.

The industrials group was the major decliner, down 0.85 per cent.

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