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TORONTO (Reuters) – Toronto's main stock index finished higher on Friday as stronger bullion prices pushed up shares of heavyweight miners such as Barrick Gold and Goldcorp, while Suncor Energy rose on multibillion-dollar plans to boost crude production.

Barrick, the top influential advancer on the index, rose 1.9 percent to C$45.10, while Goldcorp was also up 1.9 percent at C$46.25 as the price of gold rose back within striking distance of its record high.

"The action on the upside is being led by the materials stocks, specifically the big gold producers. That is to be expected because gold seems to be reaching new highs practically every week," said Elvis Picardo, analyst and strategist at Global Securities in Vancouver.

Suncor was also a top gainer, rising 1.2 percent to C$36.89. The country's biggest oil company said on Friday it would budget C$5.5 billion for capital expenditures next year and would restart construction at an oil sands project.

The S&P/TSX composite index rose 46.92 points, or 0.41 percent, at 11,407.68, with six of its 10 main sectors higher. The index is up 1.4 percent for the week.

The blue chip S&P/TSX 60 index closed 2.74 points higher, or 0.41 percent, at 678.27.

Earlier in the day, soft U.S. economic data threatened to tug the market lower.

U.S. consumer sentiment fell in early November amid a grim outlook for job prospects, while a larger than expected U easy payday loans.S. trade deficit had economists scaling back estimates for third-quarter economic growth.

"The market reaction was quite negative when the news was released," Francis Campeau, a broker at MF Global Canada in Montreal, said of the consumer sentiment reading.

However, U.S. stocks managed to bounce higher as investors focused on retail issues, which rose as JC Penney Co Inc said earnings for the holiday quarter could beat estimates and Abercrombie & Fitch Co posted better than expected results.

For most of Friday afternoon, Toronto stocks remained relatively flat in a sign of market indecision.

"We're having a heck of a time breaking through 11,500 with any degree of conviction," said Picardo. "Unless we break through that level with conviction investors are going to be a little concerned that they could possibly be at a near-term top for the TSX."

Influential names on the downside included EnCana Corp, down 1.4 percent at C$58.41, and Manulife Financial, which dropped 1.5 percent to C$20.07. Research In Motion fell 1 percent to C$65.95.

(Reporting by Jennifer Kwan; editing by Rob Wilson)

TSX ends higher, gets lift from golds, Suncor

The review board for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria has recommended Kenya’s bids for hundreds of millions of dollars under the latest round of funding be rejected.  Monitoring ratings produced by the Global Fund rank Kenya near the bottom globally in properly managing Fund grants.The government has requested a total of $650-million from the Fund.  The $270-million requested to fight malaria has been rejected outright for this round of funding.  The $50-million sought for tackling tuberculosis could still be awarded if the proposal is satisfactorily revised. The government has the opportunity to appeal the rejection of the $300-million sought specifically for HIV/AIDS programs and is sending a high-level delegation to push for the funds to still be awarded. Last year, the Fund similarly rejected the nation’s funding proposals, costing Kenya a potential of nearly $470-million for fighting the three deadly diseases. The Kenyan government’s failure to secure recent grants from the Fund may be influenced by its poor record of handling such procurements in the past. A November 2008 analysis of Global Fund evaluative marks compiled by the Nairobi-based Global Fund watchdog group Aidspan placed Kenya 110th out of 114-ranked nations in terms of its overall grant management.Key players have suggested the nation’s bloated Cabinet, created to appease both sides of the power-sharing government, has only further dropped donor confidence in Kenya’s grant performance. In 2008 the nation’s health ministry was split into the Public Health Ministry and the Medical Services Ministry.  Infighting between the two ministries has reportedly led to significant overlap in mandates and major battles over health funds. Kenya’s coordinating committee to the Global Fund is headed by a top official at the Medical Services Ministry. But it was the minister for the Public Health Ministry and her team which was sent as a delegation to the Fund’s summit in Ethiopia quick cash.When contacted, the secretariat for the coordinating committee said she could not comment on the latest funding round decisions, as the team was not represented at the summit. In addition, VOA has been told the senior Kenyan technical advisor on the Global Fund was excluded from the delegation because he works under the Finance Ministry.A recent public spat between NGOs tasked with distributing HIV/AIDS treatments could also give insight into Kenya’s difficult relations with donors.  In October, local organizations accused Care Kenya, a recipient of a $4.7-million grant from the Global Fund, of refusing to quickly release the money.  The group of local NGOs warned that if the money was not soon allocated, the Fund might refuse to donate more dollars in the current round of funding. But Care fired back, saying that less than half of the 58 groups set to receive the Global Fund money had yet been able to meet the Fund’s accounting criteria for the funds already given them. The U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief program, known as PEPFAR, is Kenya’s largest provider of HIV/AIDS assistance, taking some of the pressure off of the Kenyan delegation sent to appeal the Global Fund’s decision.But the head of a Kenyan HIV/AIDS advocacy group, James Kamau, says without the Global Fund money thousands of Kenyans will be left without treatment options. “We need to appeal to the Global Fund on humanitarian grounds, for at least the component of ARVs to continue, because as it were right now, we have only had 300,000 people on ARVs, but those who require ARVs at the end of the day are 600,000,” he says.The Geneva-based Global Fund was established in 2002 after world leaders agreed to its creation during the 2001 G8 summit.

Mismanagement May Cost Kenya Key Health Funds