Shares on North American markets continued to slide on Friday as investors struggled to assess the likely impact of the terrorist attack on economic growth and earnings.

The TSE 300 fell for the fourth straight day, but ended well above its opening low of 6301.52. The composite index closed at 6,513.13, down 8.66 points.

Today’s trading session was volatile, and volume was heavy at 184 million shares. Market momentum was again negative as declines outpaced advances 677 to 408, with 210 issues closing unchanged. New lows outnumbered new highs 216 to 18.

Several of the TSE’s sectors rebounded today. Overall, six of the 14 sub-indices posted gains. The biggest gains were in conglomerates, pipelines and energy stocks, but the bellwether industrial sub-index managed a 1% advance.

The biggest losers were forest products and consumer products, but the influential financial services sub-index fell 1.5%.

Among individual issues, Nortel Networks was the day’s top trader on a volume of 12.7 million shares. Nortel slipped 1¢ to $7.90. Bombardier, second on the most active list, edged down 2¢ to $12.92.

Energy, gold and pipelines stocks did well today. Westcoast Energy gained $1.65 to $39.80. On Thursday, Duke Energy agreed to buy Westcoast for US$3.5 billion.

Anderson Exploration advanced 25¢ to $39.15. TransCanada PipeLines added 40¢ to close at $20.40.

Among gold stocks, Placer Dome climbed 83¢ to $20.83, while Kinross Gold edged up 3¢ to $1.56.

Major insurers closed lower Friday. Manulife Financial slipped 88¢ to $35.59, while Sun Life slid 3¢ to $28.49.

Among the banks, Royal bucked the downtrend gaining 22¢ to $44.22. TD, BMO, Scotia and CIBC all closed lower.

Airline sad sack Air Canada fell another 13% Friday, slipping 55¢ to finish the week at $3.50.

The Canadian Venture Exchange also closed on a down note. The CDNX index dropped19.48 points to 2,761.71, Trading was active on a volume of 30.6 million shares, with 186 advances, 223 declines and 588 issues unchanged.

In New York, U.S. stocks slumped for the eighth consecutive session Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average had its worst single-week performance since the Great Depression. The Dow ended today’s session down another 140 points at 8,236.

The Nasdaq composite index fell 3.25%, shedding 48 points to close at 1,423. The S&P 500 slipped 19 points to 966.