By Jeff Sanford

(May 17 – 18:00 ET) – Markets were a bit more restrained today, but still made gains in the wake of yesterday’s large advances. General optimism about the prospects of the North American economy appears to be responsible for the gains.

It was Toronto’s turn to outperform today. The TSE 300 opened high, and then continued to climb through the day. It finished up 82.98 points at 8,229.00, a gain of 1.02%.

Thirteen of the TSE’s 14 sub-indices advanced today. The sole exception was paper and forest.

Techs were the big story, with the industrial products sub-index gaining 2.3% on the day. Within the sector, Ballard was ahead 16.9% to close at $88.50. Celestica also had a good day. It was ahead 6.3% to close at $85.85.

The conglomerates sector also did well. Onex gained 4.1% to close at $22.95 on the strength of Celestica’s gain.

Market trend among individual issues was also strongly positive with advancers outpacing decliners 641 to 460. Volume was strong at 191 million shares traded.

Kinross gold topped the most active list today, trading almost 10 million shares. It also made good gains, climbing 11.11% to close at $1.30. Second on the list of most actives was Denison Mine, which gained 5.26% to close at 20¢.

Sherritt climbed 5.78% today to close at $4.76. Cyberplex also made a big jump today, advancing 19.05% to close at 75¢.

The CDNX finished the day ahead 21.07 points at 3,232.33. Volume was heavy at 45 million shares. Advancers outpaced decliners 243 to 226.

The loonie improved on its big advance yesterday, gaining 0.34% to close at US65.14¢.

In New York, the major indices couldn’t match the scope of yesterday’s gains. The Dow Jones industrial average added 32.66 points to close at 11,248.58. The Nasdaq composite index climbed 27.24 points to 2,193.69. The S&P 500 rose 3.50 points to 1,288.49.