By Jeff Sanford

(May 1 – 18:00 ET) – The TSE 300 was the only major North American index that failed to advance today. The composite index closed unchanged at 7,946.3.

Overall, nine of the TSE’s 14 sub-indices finished the day higher. Among the losers, transportation was the biggest mover, with a 2.4% drop. Oil and gas also dropped, losing 1.7%.

On the upside, golds led with a 2.1% gain. Industrial products posted a 1.1% gain.

Among individual issues, the market trend was negative Advancers slightly outpaced decliners 552 to 545. Volume was 156 million shares.

Mining stocks Teck and Cominco continued to be heavily traded today, in the wake of yesterday’s merger announcement. Teck rose 5.05% to $16.24, while Cominco advanced 3.3% to close at $34.45.

Following an announcement yesterday that Telesysytem International subsidiary, Clear Wave, was cutting losses at the same time it was adding subscribers has helped boost Telesystem’s stock. One the most heavily traded stocks of the day, it rocketed up 38.36% to close at $2.02.

Micrologix announced new executive appointments Monday. Today the stock was up 6.45% to close at $3.30.

Not mush else was moving today. Tahera put on 8.57% to close at 19¢. No news on that. Agrium also did well, advancing 7.18% to close at $18.22.

The loonie advanced slightly today, climbing 0.09% to close at US65.14¢ U.S.

Some of the old “dot-com” enthusiasm seems to be reentering the American markets, boosting the Nasdaq composite index to a 2.46% increase today. It closed at 2,168.29, a gain of 52.05 points. The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 163.37 points to 10,898.34, while the S&P 500 added 16.99 points to close at 1,266.45.

The recent good news about the economic outlook seems to be having an effect. Even the CDNX was up today, climbing 20.76 points to close at 3,078.68, Trading volume was 33 million shares, with 246 issues advancing and 238 declining.