By Jeff Sanford

(April 9 – 18:30 ET) – Although markets finished slightly higher today, most traders stayed home in front of the upcoming first quarter earnings season. Volume on the Toronto Stock Exchange was light as only 115 million shares were traded. Nevertheless, the TSE 300 added 63.3 points to finish at 7538.1, a gain of 0.9%.

Much of the action today came from the oil and gas sector, which advanced 2.7%. Gulf was the leader in that sector with a gain of 5.4% to close at $8.72.

The metals and minerals sector was also up, closing 1.6% higher, as was the utilities sector (a 9.1% drop in 360Networks and a 13.6% decline in Telesystem International were offset by a 3.5% advance in BCE).

The remaining eleven sub-indices all advanced less than 1%. Among individual issues, market breadth was positive with advancers outpacing decliners 570 to 473.

The most active list was relatively quiet today. Research In Motion gained 5.5% to close at $34.50, while C-Mac gained 4.07% to close at $34.50.

The CDNX was also quiet, only 31 million shares traded hands. The small cap exchange finished the day down 11.83 points at 2,895.23. Market breadth was decidedly negative with 244 issues moving lower and only 194 moving up.

The loony withered a bit more today, dropping 0.13% to close at US63.89ยข.

In the New York volumes were also uncharacteristically light, as investors sat in the sidelines waiting for earnings news. The Dow Jones industrial average advanced a slight 0.55% to 9,845.15. The Nasdaq composite index rose 25.35 points, a gain of 1.47%, to 1,745.71 while the S&P 500 finished up 9.16 points at 1,137.59.