Technology and financial stocks led broadly-based gains in Toronto Monday following a couple of big mergers south of the border. The S&P/TSX composite index advanced 49.79 points to close at 7,664.19.

Bank of America and FleetBoston Financial are hooking up in a US$47 billion all-stock deal that will create the second-largest bank in the U.S.

As well, Anthem is buying Wellpoint for US$15.2 billion to create the largest health management organization in the U.S.

Mergers of this size are often seen as a signal of corporate optimism, and that news cheered investors.

The TSX information technology index gained 2%, while the heavily weighted financial index advanced 0.6%.

Among technology shares, Nortel was up 17¢ to $5.62; Celestica rose 64¢ to $18.05; and Certicom surged 87ç to $4 as it continued to benefit from last week’s US$25 millioncontract from the National Security Agency.

Among financial issues, TD Bank rose 20¢ to $42.50; CIBC added 32¢ to $59.95; Manulife climbed 37¢ to $38.30.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index gained 21.01 points to close at 1,501.54.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average climbed 25.70 points to 9608.16. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 17.32 points to 1882.91. The broader S&P 500 added 2.22 points to close at 1,031.13.

The Canadian dollar fell 0.22 of a cent to close at US76.28¢ in official Bank of Canada trading.