Toronto stocks chalked up a fourth straight day of solid gains Thursday, while the Canadian dollar held firm ahead of a confidence vote on the federal budget.

The S&P/TSX composite index gained 61.94 points, or 0.66%, to close at 9,469.78.

Volume was 206 million shares.

Eight of the 10 TSX main groups advanced .

The energy group was among the biggest gainers, up 1.3% despite slightly lower crude oil prices. Crude futures slipped 33¢ to US$46.92 a barrel, building on Wednesday’s drop.

On the TSX, Petro-Canada rose $2.11 to $69.47; Imperial Oil gained $1.45 to $85.35.

The information technology was up 1.5%. Research in Motion stock gained $2.99 to $97.75; Celestica rose 22¢ to $15.42; Nortel added 7 cents to $3.40.

Zarlink Semiconductor bucked the tech gains; its shares were down 21¢ to $1.76 in heavy trading after it posted a huge fourth-quarter loss of $23.9 million with much lower-than-expected gross margins.

Among individual stocks, FNX Mining stock jumped $1.86 to $11.01 following the release of positive drilling results at a nickel and copper property near Sudbury, Ontario.

TransAlta shares rose 62¢ to $19.44, contributing to a 1.6% rise in the utilities group.

Shares of Air Canada parent ACE Aviation Holdings rose $1.56 to $37.96 after the company confirmed it could make an announcement shortly about the partial sale of its Aeroplan loyalty program.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite rose 4.27 points to 1,598.10

The Canadian dollar was up 0.03 cents to US79.38 cents.

Votes on the federal budget are scheduled for late Thursday afternoon. It’s expected the second vote will be very close.

On Wall Street, U.S. markets ended modestly higher. as oil prices hovered around 3-month lows and economic data painted a mixed picture.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 28.74 points, or 0.27%, to 10,493.19 as the blue chips rallied on lower oil prices.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index gained 11.93 points, or 0.59%, to end the day at 2,042.60. The broader S&P 500 advanced 5.52 points, or 0.47%, to end at 1,191.08.