It looked like a wash on the Toronto Stock Exchange as the TSE 300 traded below yesterday’s close for most of the day.

Volume picked up in the late afternoon, however, and the composite index rallied to close up 50 points at 7,694, a gain of 0.66%.

The advances were market wide. Transportation led the advance, gaining 3% today on a 3.4% advance in the price of Canadian National Railway, and a 3.3% increase in the price of Air Canada. There was also a 7.5% jump in shares of Zenon Environmental, which closed at $14.94.

A 5.5% jump in shares of George Weston Ltd. helped the merchandising sector to a 2.1% advance. Weston closed at $94.84.

The communications and media sector was up 1.6% as consolidation talk continues. Shares in Rogers Communications advanced 5.5% today to close at $27.

Also doing well were the pipeline, gold, consumer products, financial services sectors and industrial products sub-indices.

Only two groups finished down. Oil and gas was off 0.9% and the metals and minerals sector was off 3.2% as Alcan shed another 4.8% to close at $56.87.

A late day tech-buying spree in the states turned Nortel around. It had been off at midday but ended the day up 15¢ at $12.25.

Selected financial services stocks picked up after the Bank of Canada announced a rate cut this morning. BMO rose 2.6%, National Bank climbed 2.2% and CIBC advanced 1.3%. Not all the banks posted gains, Royal finished off 0.2%.

Among individual issues, advancers outpaced decliners 540 to 489. Volume was again on the light side at 137 million shares.

The CDNX fell today, dropping another 29 points to close at 3,105. Market trend was negative with 225 issues declining and only 163 advancing. Volume was also on the light side at 28 million shares.

The loonie continued to self off today and dropped back under 65¢. It was off 0.17% to close at US64.92¢.

In New York, a late day tech rally helped the Nasdaq composite index to a 1.88% advance. It closed at 2,067.

The Dow Jones industrial average advanced 1.28% to 10,606 and the S&P 500 gained 1% to 1,214.