Toronto Stock Exchange (12,613.05 up 105.45 points):

Southern Pacific Resource Corp. (TSX:STP). Oil and gas. Up 9.5 cents, or 23.46 per cent, at 50 cents on 12.29 million shares. The energy sector was the leading advancer on the main index, up 1.92 per cent to 251.65 points. The price of June crude finished 86 cents US higher to $96.02 per barrel.

Eastern Platinum Ltd. (TSX:ELR). Miner. Down half a cent, or 5.26 per cent, at nine cents on 9.39 million shares. The metals and mining sector rose 0.21 per cent to 840.51 points.

Surge Energy Inc. (TSX:SGY). Oil and gas. Up 29 cents, or 6.44 per cent, at $4.79 on 7.21 million shares.

Kinross Gold Corp. (TSX:K). Miner. Down 13 cents, or 2.35 per cent, at $5.40 on 6.01 million shares. The gold sector was the biggest loser, dropping 3.25 per cent to 180.29 points as the price of the bullion fell US$22.20 to $1,364.70 per ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That’s the lowest close since mid-April.

Manulife Financial Corp. (TSX:MFC). Insurer. Up 18 cents, or 1.13 per cent, at $16.11 on 4.61 million shares.

Bombardier Inc. (TSX:BBD.B). Transportation equipment. Up three cents, or 0.64 per cent, at $4.69 on 4.32 million shares.

Toronto Venture Exchange (934.68 up 1.82 points):

Madalena Ventures Inc. (TSXV:MVN). Oil and gas explorer. Up five cents, or 12.99 per cent, at 43.5 cents on 6.11 million shares.

Sterling Resources Ltd. (TSXV:SLG). Oil and gas. Up a penny, or 1.52 per cent, at 67 cents on 5.16 million shares.

Companies reporting major news:

Bank of Montreal (TSX:BMO). Bank. Up 67 cents, or 1.09 per cent, at $62.18 on 2.19 million shares. The big bank has 90 days to improve its system in combating money laundering after American authorities found shortcomings at its Chicago branch, where its BMO Harris Bank is based.

New Flyer Industries Inc. (TSX:NFI). Down a penny, or 0.10 per cent, at $10 on 25,781 shares. Halifax Regional Council approved the purchase of up to 80 of its Xcelsior clean diesel 40-foot heavy-duty buses. Financial terms were not immediately available.

SNC-Lavalin Group (TSX:SNC). Engineering. Up seven cents, or 0.17 per cent, at $1.87 on 1.47 million shares. Montreal-based SNC defended itself against a nearly $1 million wrongful dismissal lawsuit filed by former controller Stephane Roy. SNC said it was justified in firing the former executive last year because it claims he acted illegally to help smuggle the son of Libya dictator Moammar Gadhafi to Mexico.

Big carriers like Rogers, Bell and Telus shouldn’t be allowed use loopholes or do creative deals to get around the rules, Anthony Lacavera said Friday.

“The government can say either you can do deals like that or you can’t,” Lacavera said in an interview.

“Rules are always open to some interpretation. So at a minimum, the government needs to be clear and decisive and fast with what they say.”

Telus announced a plan Thursday to buy struggling wireless carrier Mobilicity for $380 million. The company has asked for regulatory approval for the deal before Mobilicity’s five-year licence expires because of its poor financial situation.

Mobilicity, as well as Wind Mobile, bought spectrum — radio waves over which cellphone networks operate — that was set aside for new players to bid on in order to bring more competition to the cellphone market. As a result, their licenses can’t be sold and transferred to any of the big carriers until next year.

Industry Minister Christian Paradis has said he will take the time he needs to review the Telus-Mobilicity deal, but Lacavera said there has to be clarity on the rules before carriers can make their applications on June 11 to bid in the next spectrum auction.

Wind Mobile, with its just more than 600,000 subscribers and no-contract service, faces an uncertain future.

Dutch owner VimpelCom has put Wind Mobile up for sale, opening up the possibility that one of the big three could swoop in and pick it up.

It has also been reported that Pubic Mobile, the third company that launched after the last spectrum auction, has hired an investment banker to find a buyer.

Public Mobile isn’t under any the same sale restrictions because it bought a different kind of spectrum, but the company has said it also wants the rules that were set out to be followed.

“We are at a critical juncture in the development of sustainable wireless competition in the Canadian wireless marketplace,” Public Mobile said in a recent submission to Industry Canada on transfers of spectrum licences.

Public Mobile noted Paradis has made it clear that he wants to have four wireless competitors in each region of the country.

“The intent of the policy was not to have this set-aside spectrum to end up in the hands of the incumbents,” said Public Mobile, referring to Rogers (TSX:RCI.B), Telus (TSX:T) and Bell (TSX:BCE).

Both Wind Mobile and Public Mobile worry about the eventual state of competition in the wireless industry and the impact on the prices that consumers will pay.

“Obviously, Bell, Telus and Rogers know that the game might almost be up so they’re not going to be inclined to be handing out as aggressive promotions anymore,” Lacavera said.

Public Mobile said if Ottawa doesn’t act, the recent benefits of competition from the new wireless carriers would be lost to consumers and businesses.

Rogers also has complicated matters for Industry Canada with an option to buy unused spectrum from Shaw Communications Inc. (TSX:SJR.B) purchased in the set-aside auction for new competitors in 2008. Even though Shaw hasn’t launched a wireless business, the licence doesn’t expire until next year either.

Wheat for July delivery fell 4.5 cents to $6.8325 a bushel; July corn rose 11.25 cents to $6.5275 a bushel; July oats slipped 2.25 cents to $3.755 a bushel; while July soybeans jumped 21 cents to $14.485 a bushel.

Beef and pork prices fell on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

June live cattle fell 0.50 cent to $1.1940 a pound; August feeder cattle fell 1.75 cent to $1.4337 a pound; June lean hogs fell 1.35 cent to 91.52 cents a pound.

Ming Chao Zhao, also known as Michael Zhao, was ordered to pay a $750,000 administrative penalty, $30,000 in costs and return $416,719 of profits.

Under the settlement, he has also been permanently banned from trading securities and from becoming a registrant, or a director or officer of a registrant.

Zhao is also banned from becoming a director or officer of an issuer for 10 years.

The regulator says between June 2010 and December 2011, Zhao used a relative’s brokerage account to buy shares of five companies that, because of his position at BMO, he knew were going to announce merger and acquisition deals.

After the announcement he sold the shares, earning a profit of roughly $416,000.

The Canadian bank, U.S. Federal Reserve and an Illinois state agency have signed an agreement that gives BMO until late July to submit an acceptable plan for resolving the short-comings.

Among other things, the document says state and federal authorities identified problems when they examined the bank’s branch in Chicago, where its BMO Harris Bank is based.

Details of the deficiencies weren’t disclosed in the document but it outlined steps for BMO to take including improved oversight by its board of directors and better internal training and reporting within the bank’s organization.

The agreement, dated April 29 and made public on Friday, outlines several deadlines for BMO to meet including an acceptable a written plan within 90 days.

Wynne says the government will introduce legislation this fall to create the position of a Financial Accountability Officer to provide analysis and advice on the province’s finances and the costs of proposed spending initiatives.

The premier released a statement this morning saying the government would also introduce new accountability measures across the health care system, but stopped short of agreeing to the New Democrats’ demand to give the ombudsman oversight of hospitals.

However, Wynne said the Liberals intend to stick to their plan to allow motorists without passengers to pay a toll to drive in car pool lanes, something the NDP condemned as “Lexus lanes” and demanded be dropped from the budget.

The statement notes there will be legislation on creating the so-called high-occupancy-toll, or HOT lanes, so the NDP and Progressive Conservatives would have a chance to outvote the minority Liberals and kill the idea.

Wynne also said she wants to meet with NDP Leader Andrea Horwath next week so they can work together to make sure the budget passes before the legislature breaks for the summer in early June.

The Progressive Conservatives have vowed to defeat the budget in hopes of triggering an election, so the Liberals need the NDP to make sure the fiscal plan gets approved by the legislature.

The Conference Board says its index of leading indicators increased 0.6 per cent last month to a reading of 95. That followed a 0.2 per cent decline in March.

The index is intended to signal economic conditions three to six months out.

Conference Board economist Ken Goldstein said the index is 3.5 per cent higher at an annual rate than it was six months ago, suggesting expansion for the economy. He said the biggest risk at the moment is the drag from cuts in federal spending.

American residents took 1.7 million trips to Canada in March, including a million overnight trips, the highest figure since February 2010.

They made 620,000 same-day car trips to Canada, a 4.0 per cent increase from February.

Travel to Canada from overseas was up 0.2 per cent from February.

In the opposite direction, Canadian travel abroad decreased 1.7 per cent to 5.5 million trips.

Canadian travel to the United States fell 2.1 per cent.

The loonie fell a penny to 97.12 cents US.

The federal agency says the annual inflation rate dipped six-tenths of a point to 0.4 per cent, below what economists had been expecting.

There was also an outward decline month-to-month, with prices dropping 0.4 per cent from March. The biggest contributor to the decline was gasoline, which fell six per cent from last April.

On a month-to-month basis, gasoline, clothing, restaurant meals, furniture and mortgage interest costs were all lower last month than they were in March.

But the Bank of Canada’s core inflation index, which excludes volatile items such as gasoline, just managed to stay within the central bank’s desired one-to-three range, falling only three-tenths of a point to 1.1 per cent.

Meanwhile, gold prices continued to pull back. June gold bullion dropped $8.10 to US$1,378.80 an ounce, down nearly five per cent this week. On Wednesday, it closed under $1,400 an ounce for the first time in a month.

The June crude contract was up 65 cents to US$95.81 a barrel and July copper climbed four cents to US$3.33 a pound.

Overseas markets were subdued after the European Union statistics office reported that nine of the 17 countries that use the euro are in recession, including France. The combined economy of the 17 countries shrank by 0.2 per cent in the first three months of 2013 compared to the prior quarter.

The agency says in volume terms, wholesale sales were up 0.1 per cent in March.

In March, four of seven subsectors reported gains, accounting for about two-thirds of wholesale sales.

Sales in the motor vehicle and parts subsector rose 2.0 per cent to $8.5 billion in March, its second consecutive increase.

Wholesale sales rose in Ontario, Saskatchewan and British Columbia.

The gains, though, were offset by drops in the other provinces, including a 3.5 per cent sales decline in Alberta.