Another record high for oil prices depressed U.S. markets Thursday and took the shine off the much-anticipated launch of Google Inc., while a strong performance by gold stocks added welcome lustre to Toronto markets.

At close, Toronto’s S&P/TSX composite was ahead by 70.95 points or 0.86% to 8293.94, while the TSX Venture Exchange added 7.38 points or 0.49% at 1500.50.

The Dow industrial average was off 42.33 points or 0.49% to 10040.82. The Nasdaq fell 11.48 points or 0.63% at 1819.89, while the S&P 500 lost 3.94 points or 0.36% to 1091.23.

The Canadian dollar was up 0.41¢ in late trading, to US77.04¢.

On Bay Street, the TSX gold sub-index jumped 4.31% as investors jumped into Kinross Gold (up 4.99% on the day), Barrick Gold (3.63%) and Placer Dome (3.8%) among others. Trading was heavy in those issues.

Toronto also got a lift from tech shares, up 0.62% as a whole, and in particular Nortel Networks, which jumped 4.09% on volume of more than 37 million shares. The increase came after the company said it will slash its workforce by 3,500 jobs, or 10%, and has fired seven more finance employees “for cause.” Nortel also said “estimated limited preliminary unaudited” earnings per share in the first half of 2004 were zero to US2¢ a share.

Energy shares were also up (1.24%) as world oil prices continued to rise, while financials rose 0.45%. Only three sub-sectors were down on the day.

Along with Nortel, Bombardier was one of the most actively traded on the TSX; its shares jumped almost 5% on volume of more than 14 million shares. Bombardier stock hit a 10-year low on Wednesday.

In New York, the spike in oil prices raised fears that the psychologically important US$50 a barrel mark could be breached. On Thursday, light sweet crude oil for September delivery traded up 83¢ at US$48.10 per barrel in New York amid a decline in U.S. oil and gasoline inventories and continued uncertainty over supply from Iraq.

Shares of Google took off, gaining 18% at US$100.34 on the Nasdaq as it began trading after the Internet company’s initial public offering. The offering, smaller than originally planned, raised US$1.67 billion.

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