By Malcolm Morrison, The Canadian Press

TORONTO - The Toronto stock market was higher Friday as traders picked up stocks that have sold off this month on worries about Greece leaving the eurozone and generally slowing economic conditions.

Facebooks debut as a public company helped overshadow news out of Europe, at least temporarily.

Facebook was set to start trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market at 11 a.m. EDT, the day after the worlds definitive online social network raised US$16 billion in an initial public offering that valued the company at $104 billion. Facebook priced its IPO at $38 per share on Thursday, at the top of expectations. The stock trades under ticker symbol will be FB.

The S&P/TSX composite index rose 60.2 points to 11,390.88 while the TSX Venture Exchange was ahead 7.06 points to 1,235.13.

The pessimistic mood on markets has sent the TSX tumbling about 1,000 points or more than eight per cent to its lowest level since last October.

The Canadian dollar was higher as data showed that inflation was slightly higher in April while prices for gold and copper gained ground after selling off this week.

The commodity-sensitive loonie rose 0.1 of a cent to 98.23 cents US as Statistics Canada said that Canada's annual inflation rate rose to two per cent in April, from 1.9 per cent the previous month.

The loonie has lost about three US cents this month as tension over Greece sent traders to the safe haven status of U.S. Treasuries and away from riskier assets such as commodities and resource-based currencies such as the Canadian dollar.

U.S. markets were little changed at the end of a bruising week. The Dow industrials lost 156 points on Thursday following a disappointing read on the U.S. manufacturing sector in the northeast. The Philadelphia Federal Reserve index unexpectedly fell into negative territory.

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Toronto stock market heads higher amid cautious buying at end of bruising week