The Canadian stock market ended lower Friday, as hopes waned for US leaders to find a resolution in "fiscal cliff" negotiations.

The S&P/TSX Composite Index lost 57.65 points, or 0.47 percent, to 12,316.12 while the S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index added 5.09 points, or 0.43 percent, to 1,201.84.

Growing concerns over whether President Barack Obama and lawmakers can reach a compromise before the January 1 deadline further weighed on North American stocks.

Financial companies led Friday's decline among the Canadian stocks, with Royal Bank of Canada, the country's largest bank, dropping 0.5 percent to 59.75 Canadian dollars per share. The country's third largest bank, Bank of Nova Scotia, fell 0.86 percent to 57.42 Canadian dollars.

Energy stocks dipped as well, with oil and gas giant Suncor Energy slipping 1.41 percent to 32.16 Canadian dollars apiece, while Imperial Oil shares lowered by 0.68 percent to 42.38 Canadian dollars per share. Canadian Natural Resources shed 0.35 percent to 28.39 Canadian dollars a share.

For gold stocks, Barrick Gold Corp decreased by 1.05 percent to 33.88 Canadian dollars. The company's leading competitor, Goldcorp, also fell by 1.47 percent to 35.45 Canadian dollars.

In the industrials sector, transportation manufacturing giant Bombardier Inc. lost 0.80 percent and lowered to 3.73 Canadian dollars.

In Canadian corporate news, BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) on Friday sold its cloud-based mobile services subsidiary, NewBay, to mobile innovation company Synchronoss Technologies listed in NASDAQ for 55.5 million US dollars. The sale price was about half of what RIM had paid for the acquisition of NewBay last year.

RIM shares continued its winning streak on Friday and were up 0.43 percent to 11.75 Canadian dollars.