By Jeff Sanford

(May 7 – 18:00 ET) – The Toronto Stock Exchange outperformed most North American markets today when the TSE 300 composite index closed up 40.92 points at 8,022.60. Major U.S. markets ended the session with slight losses.

There wasn’t much action today on the heels of Friday’s big advances. Volumes and volatility were low across all markets. Traders appear to be conserving their energy until tomorrow’s earnings release from Cisco Systems.

On the TSE volume was an anemic 115 million shares. Many of those shares were gold companies, as that sector led the advance today, climbing 2.2%. Also up were the paper and forest and the industrial products sub-indices, both up 1.3%.

Overall, eight of the TSE’s 14 sub-indices advanced. Among individual issues, advancing issues outpaced decliners 579 to 513.

On the most active list, Telesystem International, continues to draw investors, as it surged ahead 24.42% today to close at $3.67. It was the third most active issue of the day behind Nortel (up 2.27% to $24.80) and Mitel (up 0.72% to $14), which reports Thursday.

Dujour Mines was another stock du jour today, climbing 18.75% to close at 95¢. It was the fourth most heavily traded issue of the day.

While National Bank was off 0.20%, BMO advanced 2.70% to close at $36 Both were among the ten most active stocks today. Sun Life was up 2.81% to day to close at $33.70.

An announcement by Geac Computer today that it has reduced its indebtedness explains the 17.65% jump in it stock price this afternoon. It closed at $2.

The CDNX gained 4.94 points today to close at 3,131.46. Among individual issues, though, the market trend was negative with 253 issues declining and 210 advancing. Volume was 39 million shares.

The loonie plunged almost half a cent today to close at US64.87¢.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average slipped 16.07 points to close at 10935.17. The Nasdaq composite index was off 17.99 points at 2,173.54. The S&P 500 was off 3.10 points to close at 1,263.51.