CANADA STOCKS-TSX posts biggest weekly gain since September as corporate earnings impress

By Twesha Dikshit and Fergal Smith

Aug 8 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index ended marginally lower on Friday but still notched a hefty weekly gain, as investors cheered corporate earnings and shrugged off domestic data that showed the economy shedding jobs last month.

The S&P/TSX composite index .GSPTSE ended down 2.59 points, or 0.01%, at 27,758.68, having pulled back from a record closing high on Wednesday.

For the week, the index was up 2.7%, its biggest weekly gain since September last year, as Shopify Inc took over as Canada's most valuable publicly traded company. The e-commerce company reported on Wednesday quarterly results that impressed investors, sending its shares soaring more than 20%.

"The TSX has been benefiting this week from a generally positive response to earnings that have been coming out in Canada," said Colin Cieszynski, chief market strategist at SIA Wealth Management.

"We had a job decline in Canada which, combined with the disappointing U.S. numbers from last week, suggests the North American employment market is slowing and that the economy itself might be starting to slow."

The Canadian economy shed 40,800 jobs in July, giving back some of the substantial gains seen in the prior month and sending the share of people employed in the population to an eight-month low.

Signs of slowing U.S. growth have fueled optimism over Federal Reserve interest rate cuts, helping to push U.S. stocks higher.

The TSX's technology group added 0.7% on Friday, with shares of Open Text Corp OTEX.TO climbing 10.0% after the software company beat estimates with its quarterly results.

The materials group, which includes metal mining shares, was up 0.6% as the price of copper HGc1 climbed. Shares of Lundin Gold LUG.TO ended 6.5% higher after the company reported quarterly results.

Sun Life Financial Inc SLF.TO was a drag. Its shares dropped 7.9% after the life insurer said it would miss a 2025 profit target for its dental business in the U.S. due to uncertainty in Medicaid funding.

Heavily weighted financials dipped 0.2% and consumer discretionary ended 1% lower.