It’s Independence Day in the U.S., tomorrow, so the American exchanges closed early today. It seems like the holiday spirit slipped north as it was one of the slowest days of the year in terms of volume. Only 95 million shares traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange 300 composite index. It ended up beating the US indexes, though none of them really moved very far.

The TSE closed up 12 points at 7748. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 23 points to 10571. The NASDAQ composite index slipped eight points to 2141. The S&P 500 dropped slightly, down two points to 1234.

Market trend among individual TSE issues was relatively even, with 526 issues declining and 507 advancing. Overall market trend was slightly negative among the sectors, with seven closing down, one unchanged and six closing higher.

The big gainers on the TSE, today, were financial services stocks. That sector climbed 1.5% along with the real estate sector.

Among the financials, Bank of Nova Scotia was up 2.25% at $46.42, Royal Bank of Canada was up 2.12% at $49.60, Manulife was up 3.54% at $43.85 and TD was up 1.76% at $39.32.

Rogers stock moved well today, with shares in Rogers up 4.37% at $23.65 and shares in Rogers Wireless up 3.37% at $26.98.

Prometic Life held a conference call this morning announcing it has developed a system for detecting and removing pathogens that cause Mad Cow disease. Stock in Prometic ended the day up 5.45% at $1.74.

The CDNX was also quiet today. Only 27 million shares traded. Nevertheless, it still dropped 24 points to close at 3198. Market trend was strongly negative with 222 issues dropping and only 161 advancing.

The Canadian dollar had a good day, though. It climbed 0.30% to close at US66.19¢.