North American markets enjoyed healthy gains Thursday, bolstered by up earnings reports, and some heartening economic news in the United States.

The TSE 300 composite index climbed 68.68 points to close at 7,652.70.

Overall, 11 of the TSE’s 14 sub-indices advanced during the session, led by a 2.88% jump in industrial products sub-index, home of the TSE’s tech stocks.

Tech bellwhether Nortel Networks jumped 61¢ to close $12.34 ahead of its after-hour earnings report, which matched expectations.

The company posted a fourth quarter loss and said that it expects revenues to continue sliding through the first quarter of 2002. It expects to return to profitability by the fourth quarter off 2002.

Several tech stocks recorded strong gains. Celestica added $4.19 to $71.59, while Research in Motion rose $1.90 to $35.90.

The S&P/CDNX Composite Index closed up 9.06 points at 1,094.55. Trading was heavy on a volume of 37.8 million, with 247 advances, and 192 declines

The Canadian dollar closed at an all time low Thursday. During the day the looonie had traded below the US62¢ level. The currency recovered to close at US62.13¢. It’s never closed lower.

In early morning trading, the dollar dipped as low as 61.84 cents US.

In New York, stocks closed higher Thursday as technology and banking shares advanced.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 137.77 points to 9,850.04, and the Nasdaq composite index climbed 41.38 points to 1,985.82. The S&P 500 added 11.31 points to 1k138.88.

Earlier in the day it was announced that U.S. housing starts fell 3.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.570 million in December, slightly weaker than the consensus estimate of 1.610 million. Building permits rose 3.6% to 1.653 million, above the 1.560 million forecast. As well, the Labor Department said initial jobless claims fell in the week ended Jan. 12 to 384,000 from 394,000 the previous week.

After the closing bell, IBM reported fourth quarter4 earnings that were 15% below a year ago, but were still slightly ahead of analysts expectations.