Toronto stocks managed to eke out a small gain on Thursday, ignoring the rally south of the border. The S&P/TSX composite index ended up 27.67 points, or 0.30%, at 9,405.78.

Volume was 176 million shares

Resource shares were held back by weakness in gold prices and copper prices.

As well, strong Canadian retail sales figures released today sparked talk of an interest rate hike by the Bank of Canada sooner rather than later.

Analysts said the market has also adopted a cautious stance ahead of a televised speech by Prime Minister Paul Martin on this evening on the sponsorship scandal. Opposition parties have hinted at forcing a June election.

Overall, six of the TSX 10 groups closed lower, including financials, consumer staples, materials, utilities, health care and the consumer discretionary group.

The materials group fell 0.16%. In that sector, gold-mining stocks were down 1.19%.

On the upside, the energy group rose 1.38% as crude oil prices inched higher on Thursday.

Techs, industrials and telecoms rounded out the gainers.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index climbed 12.64 points, 0.73%, to 1,748.08.

In New York, U.S. stocks soared, with the Dow Jones industrial average gaining more than 200 points, as a regional Federal Reserve factory output survey eased worry about slowing economic growth and cell phone makers including Motorola gave strong earnings outlooks.

The blue-chip Dow was up 206.24 points, or 2.54%, to finish at 10,218.60. The broad S&P 500 Index was up 22.45 points, or 1.97%, to end at 1,159.95. The tech-laced Nasdaq Composite index was up 48.65 points, or 2.54%, to end at 1,962.41.