By Jeff Sanford

(March 1 – 18:15 ET) – Today looks a lot like yesterday for Toronto stocks. The TSE opened low, but then recovered in a late day rally.

The TSE 300 gained 25.08 points to 8,103.80 on strength in the financial services and metals. The financial services sub-index gained 1.28%, while metals advanced 1.56%.

Overall eight of the TSE’s 14 sub-indices finished the day higher. On the downside, consumer products lost 1.78%, real estate fell 2.42% and industrial products slipped 0.37%.

Market breadth among individual was slightly negative, with 528 advancers and 569 decliners. Volume was 166 million shares, markedly higher than the last few days.

Among the techs, Celestica fell 6.80% to $68.50. Onex was right behind, dropping 2.50% to $19.50. ATI plunged 17.43% to $6.49 after it revised its earnings downward today.

JDS, though, climbed 7.65% to $45.75. CGI slid 3.08% to $6.30 while Descartes fell 9.94% to $20.94. RIM gained 8.81% to close at $64.20.

Financial stocks were split today. While CIBC gained 4.05% to $49.35 on a solid earnings performance and Royal advanced 2.42% to $48.45, TD finished slipped 1.05% to $40.58, and BMO dropped 1.31% at $37.75. Manulife finished up 2.47% at $43.21, as did Bank of Nova Scotia, which gained 2.29% to $44.60.

Molson slid 3.41% today to close at $43.95. No news on that move.

Brookfield filed a prospectus today to sell 4.61 million shares on behalf of Trilon. The news knocked Brookfield shares down 4.46% to $26.13.

The CDNX finished in positive territory today, though just slightly. It closed at 3,064.14, a gain of 1.15 points. Market breadth was slightly negative with 248 advancers and 255 decliners.

The loonie plunged almost three quarters of a percent today to close at US64.63¢ U.S. This week’s GDP news must be sinking in.

In New York, markets were split. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 45.14 points to10,450.14, while the Nasdaq composite scraped out a slight gain, advancing 31.48 points to 2,183.31. The S&P 500 added 1.13 points to close at 1,241.07.