FILE PHOTO: The Art Deco facade of the original Toronto Stock Exchange building is seen on Bay Street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada January 23, 2019. REUTERS/Chris Helgren/File photo

By Fergal Smith

(Reuters) -Canada's main stock index rose on Friday to another record high, led by gains for technology and gold mining shares, as disappointing U.S. and Canadian jobs data spurred investors to raise bets on interest rate cuts.

The S&P/TSX composite index ended up 134.74 points, or 0.5%, at 29,050.63, eclipsing Thursday's record closing high.

It was the eighth-straight day of gains for the index, the longest daily winning streak since May. For the week, the index was up 1.7%.

"Once again, weak data helped push rate cut expectations," said Angelo Kourkafas, senior global investment strategist at Edward Jones.

"We saw a universal message across both the U.S. and Canada with employment numbers coming in weaker than expected ... It really cements the market expectations, first of all for the Fed that it is going to resume rate cuts in September, and for the Bank of Canada that the easing cycle is not over."

Investors see a 90% chance the Bank of Canada will resume its easing campaign on September 17 after leaving its benchmark rate on hold at 2.75% since March, and are fully discounting a rate cut that same day by the Federal Reserve.

Canada's economy shed 65,500 jobs in August, largely in part-time work, and the unemployment rate climbed to 7.1%. That's the highest level of unemployment since May 2016 excluding the pandemic.

The S&P 500 ended lower, contributing to the TSX extending its outperformance this year compared to the U.S. benchmark.

"I believe it is the commodity and metals exposure that continues to help the index," Kourkafas said.

The materials group, which includes metal mining shares, added 2.6% as the price of gold rose to another all-time high.

Technology was up 2.4%, with shares of electronics company Celestica Inc jumping 9.9%.

Energy was a drag, falling 1.7%. The price of oil settled 2.5% lower at $61.87 a barrel as expectations grew of higher supply.

(Reporting by Fergal Smith in Toronto and Sanchayaita Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Shreya Biswas and Alistair Bell)