(Reuters) -Canada's main stock index eked out another all-time high on Friday, led by gains for the real estate and consumer staples sectors as long-term borrowing costs fell.
The S&P/TSX composite index ended up 1.9 points, or 0.01%, at 27,036.16, eclipsing Thursday's record closing high. For the week, the index was up 1.29%, while it has advanced 9.33% since the start of the year.
"The TSX just continues to grind higher and all the stuff that you want to see working in that benchmark still continues to work," said Mike Archibald, a portfolio manager at AGF Investments, pointing to recent strength for the heavily weighted bank stocks, as well as for the materials group, which includes gold mining shares.
Volumes were lower than usual, with U.S. markets closed for the Independence Day holiday.
"A lot of the stuff that we were hoping to see a couple of months ago we're now starting to see it. You obviously got the tax bill through in the U.S," Archibald said.
U.S. President Donald Trump was scheduled to sign a massive package of tax and spending cuts into law at a ceremony at the White House, one day after the Republican-controlled House of Representatives narrowly approved the legislation.
The real estate group rose 1.9% as the Canadian 10-year yield eased 4.1 basis points to 3.353% and after data showed Toronto-Area home sales rising for a third straight month in June. Consumer staples was up 0.4%.
Four of the ten major sectors ended lower, including technology, which dipped 0.3%, and energy.
Energy was down 0.2% as U.S. crude oil futures fell 0.75% to $66.50 a barrel ahead of an expected OPEC+ output increase.
Canada's federal government has not been presented with any private sector proposal to build a new crude pipeline to the Pacific coast, the country's Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson said.
(Reporting by Fergal Smith in Toronto and Sukriti Gupta and Twesha Dikshit in Bengaluru; editing by Mark Heinrich, William Maclean and Chizu Nomiyama )
