The TSE 300 closed slightly off of its midday peak but still managed to pull out a substantial gain of 52 points gain on the day, finishing at 7,741.

The strength came from advances in industrials and consumer products.

The industrial sub-index gained 1.6% on the day, helped by a 12.5% advance in ATI stock, which closed at $16.50 on news that Compaq has selected an ATI chip for its new notebook PC.

CGI climbing 6.6% to close at $9.35. Nortel Networks gained 25¢ to close at $12.54. Mitel was also active, closing up 8.54% at $15.25.

Consumer products gained 1.5% on the day, helped by QLT, which was up 2.9% at $33.20, and MDS, up 3.9% at $18.98.

Overall, market trend was strongly positive with 11 of the TSE’s 14 sub-indices finishing ahead on the day.

Among individual issues, market trend was also positive with advancers outpacing decliners 593 to 403. Volume was 146 million shares.

Among today’s losers, Air Canada slipped 42¢ to $6.95 after announcing job cuts and disastrous second quarter earnings this morning.

The CDNX posted a gain today, climbing 27 points to close at 3,090. Volume was 25 million shares. Market trend was positive, with 199 issues advancing and only 170 declining.

The loonie retreated after yesterday’s good GDP news. It shed 0.34% today to close at US65.18¢.

On Wall Street., techs led the day. The Nasdaq composite index advanced 2.03% after a Merrill Lynch analyst released a bullish report this morning on semi-conductor stocks. It closed at 2,068, a gain of 41 points.

The S&P 500 was also up, but not as strong. It only a managed a five point advance and closed at 1,216. The Dow Jones industrial average was off on the day, closing down 13 points at 10,510.