Pedestrians watch a sharply lower TSX stock ticker board on the sidewalk in Toronto's financial district as markets open on Friday. (J.P. Moczulski/Canadian Press)

The Toronto market took a pounding Friday as investors fled technology company Research in Motion, and energy stocks sagged.

The TSX/S&P Composite Index closed the day down 420.51 points at 12,126.00, a drop of 3.4 per cent.

The New York market moved the opposite direction as American politicians struggled to find a compromise on the government's proposed $700-billion US bailout of the financial sector. The Dow Jones index finished the day up 121.07 points at 11,143.13, a gain of 1.1 per cent.

The TSX/S&P composite was down as much as 518 points or 4.3 per cent in midday trading, but made up some ground later in the session.

The close Friday left the index down almost 800 points on the week.

Information technology and energy issues led the fall in Toronto. The price of a barrel of light sweet crude oil closed down $1.13 US at $106.89

The energy sub-index was down 3.4 per cent, and the technology sub-index 8.3 per cent.

Research in Motion (RIM) was the big loser, falling $28.43 to $72.57. The Waterloo, Ont.-based company reported a big jump in profit and revenue late Thursday, but did not meet analysts' expectations.

RIM makes the popular BlackBerry.