By Jeff Sanford

(April 17 – 18:00 ET) – Although the predictions were for a dark day on North American markets, things didn’t turn out that bad. The TSE 300, which seesawed throughout the day, squeaked out an advance of 28.60 points to close at 7819.06.

Many pundits had expected Cisco Systems’ disastrous earnings announcement to scare off investors, but they seemed to take the in.

Among the TSE sub-indices, there were no large movements. The upside was led by the oil and gas sub-index, which advanced 1.5%. That was followed by paper and forest, up 1.4% and consumer products up 1.2%. Overall, nine of 14 sub-indices advanced. On the downside, gold slipped 1.5%.

Among individual issues, the market was just about neutral with decliners edging out advancers 526 to 530. Volume was just under 152 million shares.

Local exchange carrier AXXENT announced today that it is likely going to run out of cash in May and might be headed for bankruptcy. The news sent the stock plunging some 86.67% today to close at 4¢. It was the second most heavily traded issue of the day.

The news seemed to have an effect on the stock of 360Networks. It had been up this morning after J.P. Morgan announced that it was instituting coverage of the fibre optic provider, but 360 ended the day down 12.47% at $4.14.

Not much else was moving today. RIM gained 7.86% to close at $45.15, while Descartes Systems climbed 9.39% to close at $27.15.

Sun Life climbed 2.75% to $30.67, while TD slipped 2.02% to $38.31.

The CDNX was flat today, dropping less than one point to close at 2,986.57. Volume was heavy though, as 45 million shares changed hands. Decliners outpaced advancers 224 to 204.

The loonie advanced slightly today, rising 0.12% to close at US64.14¢.

U.S. markets, though not up any big amount, ended the day in the black. The U.S. Consumer Price Index data released today were in line with expectations, reassuring investors that inflation remains at bay.

The Dow Jones industrial average and the Nasdaq composite index both advanced less than 1% to close at 10,216.73 and 1,923.19 respectively. The S&P 500 though managed to gain 12.13 points (or 1.03%) to close at 1,191.81.