On the last day of the quarter, tech stocks seemed to be benefiting from the Microsoft news in both Canada and the U.S. as the TSE ended the day up a strong 136 points at 7736 on a big 4.1% advance in the industrial products sector and NASDAQ outperformed the Dow and the S&P .

In Canada, the strength was across the board though, as only the communications and media sector ended the day down, and it was only off a slight 0.1%. Everything else was in the black.

Some leaders were the transportation sector and the conglomerates sector; both were up 2.6%. The utilities sector advanced 1.5%, financial services, 1.3% and the oil and gas sector was up 1.5%.

Within the IP sector, Nortel found some buyers and advanced $1.14 to close up at $14.00. Celestica was up 3.89% at $77.92 and RIM was up 4.64% at $48.97.

360Networks surprised no one and announced it is seeking court protection. It ended the day down another 16¢ to close at 15¢. The other anti-hero of the market, Laidlaw also announced it would seek protection from creditors to redo finances (although it said its school bus fleet and Greyhound buses would continue to operate). It was heavily traded today (11 million shares) and closed up slightly at 7¢.

Sun Life was ahead on the day, gaining 2.86% to close up $36.31. Manulife was also popular, climbing 2.67% to close at $41.35.

Canadian Hydro Developers announced it would issue stock to the investment division of Shaw Communications Inc, as that company takes a strategic position in Canadian Hydro. The deal was good for Canadian Hydro, which ended up 3.51% at $2.95

Overall, market trend was positive, with 605 issues advancing and 407 declining. Volume on the day was low, with only 150 million shares trading.

The CDNX was also slow today, only some 30 million shares were traded. It ended up at 3222, a gain of 32 points. Overall, 278 issues advanced and 178 declined.

The Canadian dollar had an outstanding day, gaining over half a cent to close up 0.62% at US66.07¢.

In the US, the techs outperformed as blue chips sagged. While NASDAQ was ahead 34 points to close up at 2160, the Dow was off 66 points to close at 10500 and the S&P 500 was off 2 points to close at 1224.