A slight increase in U.S. consumer confidence translated into slight gains for the markets today.

The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index rose to 95.8 in March, up from 95.4 in February, butless than economists had expected.

As a result, Toronto’s S&P/TSX composite index rose 17.59 points to 8,531.5.

Gains in the information technology sector outweighed losses in energy stocks.

Nortel Networks rose 32¢ to $7.49. Shares in Cognos surged $1.54 to $42.54 following Thursday’s strong earnings report.

Energy stocks faded despite an increase in the price of crude of US21¢ to U.S.$35.72 a barrel in New York. Suncor Energy lost 37¢ to $34.75 and Nexen dropped 67¢ to $48.78.

In economic news, Canadian retail sales advanced 1.6% to $26.4 billion in January after falling 1.3% in December. This helped to boostthe dollar up 0.67¢ to US75.90¢.

Meanwhile, in other news, one of the biggest shareholders of Manitoba Telecom Services has launched a campaign against the company’s $1.7-billion acquisition of Allstream Inc. Enterprise Capital wants the TSX to force MTS to allow shareholders to vote on the deal.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index rose 7.3 points at 1,856.51.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average bounced out of negative territory to a gain of 28.43 points to 10,247.25. The Nasdaq composite index finished up 3.06 points to 1,970.23. The S&P 500 index edged up 3.62 points to 1,112.81.