By Jeff Sanford

(April 10 – 17:30 ET) – The TSE had a banner day, today, advancing strongly in several sectors to finish up 207.71 points at 7745.80. Only the pipelines, real estate, gold and communications sectors ended the day on a down note.

Leading the upside was the metals and minerals sector with a massive 7.5% advance. That was followed closely by the industrial products sector which advanced 6.07%.

Also up substantially were the conglomerates with a gain of 3.30%, paper with a gain of 2.22%, oil and gas with a gain of 2.76%, transportation with a gain of 2.1%, and consumer products , up 2.11%.

Interest in the techs was led by Nortel Networks which climbed 10.7% to $22.55, RIM which added11.4% to $38.43 and Celestica, up 13.3% to $44.00.

The most active issue of the day though was Petromet, on news that it is going to be acquired by Talisman. It ended up trading more than Nortel. At the closing bell over 19 million had changed hands. It closed up 24.42% at $13.04.

Within the financials, CI Fund Management had a big day, gaining 10.73% to close at $12.90.

Overall, volume was quite respectable at 190 million shares traded. Market breadth was strongly positive with 678 issues advancing and 413 declining.

The CDNX shared in the day’s optimism. That index rose 26.26 points to close at 2921.49. Market breadth, though, wasn’t quite as positive as on the TSE. While 248 issues advanced, 228 declined. Volume was also slight with only 36 million shares trading.

Perhaps currency traders were keeping an eye on the stock indexes. The Canadian dollar covered quite a bit of ground today advancing 0.66% to close at US64.31¢.

In the U.S., techs propelled the NASDAQ composite index to a strong 6.09% advance. It closed up 106.32 points, at 1852.03. The Dow Jones industrials index also added points, finishing above 10,000 for the first time in almost a month, at 10102.74, a gain of 257.59 points. The S&P 500 added 30.79 points, closing at 1168.38.