By Jeff Sanford

(May 2 – 17:30 ET) – It was just like the old days. The Nasdaq composite index closed above 2,200 for the first time in two months on the strength of tech stocks. Investors seem to be thinking techs are bargain-priced now that there’s some light at the end of the tunnel. The TSE 300 advanced 72.1 points to 8,018.4.

All those former tech darlings took centre stage today. On Wall Street, it was Cisco and Juniper. Here in Canada, Nortel Networks led the advance, pushing the industrial products sub-index to a big 4.6% advance.

Nortel ended the day up 8% at $25.45. Also doing well were sector-mates C-Mac up, 9.4% at $54.70 and ATI Technologies, up 14.7% at $9.58.

The gains by industrials were at least partly offset by a big 4.7% decline in the oil and gas sub-index. Everything in that sector was off today, led by a 6.9% drop in the price of Gulf Canada and a 5.4% drop in Talisman. They closed at $39.21 and $58.50 respectively.

Overall nine of the TSE’s 14 sub-sectors posted gains. Volume was heavier today than it’s been in a week, at 184 million shares. Among individual issues, advancers outplaced decliners 563 to 525.

Telesystem International was the third most heavily stock again today, racking up a massive 58.42% gain to close at $3.20.

While most techs were doing well, 360Newotorks continued to suffer, dropping 5.66% to close at $2.50.

The biotechs also did well. MDS was up 3.80% and Lorus was up 4.94%.

The CDNX was ahead 14.99 points to close at 3,093.67 on volume of 38 million shares. Advancing issues outpaced decliners 229 to 205.

The loonie also had a good day, climbing 0.14% to close at US65.23ยข.

On Wall Street, the Nasdaq composite index ended the day ahead 2.41% at 2,220.60. Blue chips didn’t fare as well. The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 21.66 points to close at 10,876.68. The he S&P 500 could muster up only a gain of less than a point to close at 1,267.43.