toronto oct 1 reuters  canadas main stock index rose on friday as the prospect of the first oral antiviral medication for covid19 boosted the sectors that could benefit most from a recovery in economic growth but the market still posted a decline for the week the toronto stock exchanges sptsx composite index gsptse ended up 8062 points or 04 at 2015087 wall street also rose gains for stocks came as experts hailed an experimental antiviral pill developed by merck  co mrkn as a potential breakthrough in how the covid19 virus is treated read more because weve been floundering for a few weeks investors have seized on this as a potential catalyst to perhaps speed up the timeline of recovery from covid said elvis picardo a portfolio manager at luft financial ia private wealth you are seeing the cyclicals move up nicely today the industrials and consumer discretionary groups both rose 09 while the heavilyweighted financial services sector ended 07 higher data showed that canadas economy expanded 07 in august after a slight contraction in july read more still the toronto market fell 12 for the week its fourth straight weekly decline the whole scare about inflation investors might be taking it a little bit more seriously picardo said you have seen bond yields tick up youve seen crude oil come back really strongly us crude oil futures settled 11 higher at 7588 a barrel on friday supported by tight supplies due to opec supply curbs read more the energy sector on the tsx rose 05 while technology was up 06 reporting by fergal smith additional reporting by amal s in bengaluru editing by sandra maler