Neither a demonstration by hundreds of anti-poverty protesters in downtown Toronto, nor the resignation of Ontario premier Mike Harris kept Toronto stocks from rising Tuesday.

The 300 climbed 71.97 points, or 1%, to 7,027.60 as tech stocks, oil and gas issues and golds led a late-day rally ahead of earnings reports from tech giants Intel and IBM.

Overall 12 of the TSE’s 14 sub-indices advanced. The media and merchandising sectors declined slightly.

Volume was light, with only 87 million shares changing hands. Market momentum was broadly positive with advances outpacing declines 604 to 400.

Nortel Networks topped the list of most active stocks. Its shares rose 25¢ to $9.45. Research in Motion rose $2.76 to $29.65.

Among gold stocks, Rio Alto Exploration gained 7%, or $1.71, to $24.70.

Airline stocks continued to fall. Canada 3000 Airlines plunged $1.06 to $2.94. The company’s stock went for a dive after the CEO warned it could run out of cash by Christmas without more federal aid.

Air Canada fell 12¢ to $2. The airline issued layoff notices to more than 400 of its managers on Tuesday.

The CDNX index closed up 11.09 at 2,885.97. Trading was active on the venture capital exchange. Today’s volume was 29 million shares, with 173 advances, 150 declines and 584 issues unchanged.

In New York, The Dow Jones industrial average ended higher after spending most of the session wavering between positive and negative. Five components of the Dow reported earnings today.

The Dow rose 36.61 points to close at 9,384.23. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index gained 25.76 points to 1,722.07. The broader-market S&P500 rose 7.56 points to 1,097.54.

Intel and IBM both reported their third quarter results after the bell. Intel rose US58¢ to $24.96 ahead of its earnings report, which showed the chip giant’s net income fell 96%. The earnings met analysts’ lowered expectations.

IBM reported its net income in the third quarter fell 20% to US$1.6 billion, or US90¢ per share. That beat the street’s consensus by a penny a share.