The junior bourse broke through the 2002 lows but the big board managed a late day rally to finish in the black during Thursday trading on the Canadian markets.

Despite oil hitting record highs and gold making a nice move, the resource-rich Canadian markets made little headway against the bears during Friday trading as financial concerns south of the border sparked a liquidation of equities.

It was an ugly start to the trading week as investors did an all out exodus from Canadian stocks during Monday trading. For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange lost 2.12%, while the TSX Gold Index fell 2.2% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, plunged 3.30% with the declining issuers swamping the advancers by a 694 to 304 margin on low volume of only 150 million shares traded.

With the United States markets closed for Independence Day, it was a quiet session during Friday trading on the Canadian markets.