Toronto stocks closed higher Wednesday fueled by gains in oil and tech stocks. The TSE 300 climbed 82.98 points, or 1.2%, to 6952.30

Overall, nine of the 14 TSE sub-indices posted gains, with 119 million shares changing hands.

Oil and gas stocks soared 3.4%, as investors rushed to profit from the increased takeover action in the sector. Tech stocks powered the industrial products sub-index to a 3.5% climb.

With the renewed optimism, investors sold of gold stocks leading to a 3% decline in that sector. Financial services stocks also closed lower, sliding less than 1%.

Market momentum was overwhelmingly positive as advances outpaced declines 581 t0 447.

Among individual issues, Celestica Inc. soared to a one-month high of $52, gaining 10%. Tech bellwether
Nortel Networks Corp. rose 4.5%.

Alberta Energy Co. jumped 7.7% to $62.48, while Pancanadian Energy gained 5.5%, to $43.90.

The day’s top trader was Loblaw Companies. Shares in the supermarket gain fell nearly 8% to $48.70, after parent company George Weston said it would sell 4.2 million Loblaw shares at $48.50 per share.

After the bell, TD Bank announced plans to restructuring its TD Securities unit and take discount brokerage TD Waterhouse private. The bank will offer a cash tender of US$9 per share for Waterhouse shares TD Waterhouse shares climbed 29% to US$8 before trading was halted. TD Bank shares closed down 5¢ at $38.15.

Venture capital stocks posted gains Wednesday, too, as the CDNX Index closed up 20.63 points at 2,857.17. Trading was active on a volume of 25.million shares, with 173 advances, 171 declines and 518 issues unchanged.

On Wall Street, the major U.S. stock indices and averages closed higher Wednesday, as investor optimism beat out worries about military action in Afganistan.

The Dow Jones industrial average and the S&P 500 both advanced more than 2% Wednesday, while the Nasdaq composite indexed gained more than the 3.5%. Technology shares led the advance, propelled by chip, networking and software shares.

The Dow gained 188.42 points to 9,240.86. The Nasdaq rose 56.07 points to 1,626.26, and the S&P 500 climbed 24.24 points to 1,080.99.