Investors engaged in some cautious bargain hunting Tuesday ahead of tonight’s state of the union address from U.S. President Bush. He is expected to make the case for a possible war against Iraq, as well as outlining his administration’s plans for revitalizing the U.S. economy.

Toronto’s S&P/TSX composite index gained 13.57 points to finish at 6,570.09.

The heavily weighted financial sector edged up just 0.16%, while the industrials sector rose 1%.

Bank of Montreal declared an increase in the dividend by 10%, raising the quarterly dividend to 33¢ per share. BMO shares rose 30¢ to $41, while Royal Bank added 15¢ to close at $55.80.

The TSX was held back by weakness in technology and energy stocks.

Nortel Networks lost 13¢ to $3.50.

After the bell, Celestica Inc. reported a fourth quarter loss of US$435 million, mostly because of restructuring costs. Its shares closed up 50¢ at $22.50.

CGI posted higher first-quarter sales and earnings. The company reported net earnings of $37 million for the quarter ended Dec. 31. That’s up from the year-ago profit of $30.6 million. CGI shares rose 14¢ to $7.27

In other earnings news, Metro Inc reported that its net earnings for the first quarter increased 16.1% to $35.3 million, compared with $30.4 million last year. Its shares were marked up 22¢ to $18.27.

TransCanada Pipelines Ltd. had lower revenues but higher profits for 2002, allowing it to raised its dividend by 8%, the company announced Tuesday. For the year ended Dec. 31, the company had a net profit of $747 million up from $619 million in 2001, which included a $67 million loss from now discountinued operations. Its shares gained 14¢ to $22.82.

In other corporate news, Noranda shares sank 41¢ to $14.55 after saying it is taking a $630 million writedown as it shuts down its new magnesium plant in Quebec for at least a year.

Toronto market volume was 202.8 million shares worth $2.35 billion. Declines beat advances 609 to 488, with 210 issues unchanged.

The small-cap TSX Venture Exchange lost 3.54 points to 1,114.42.

In New York, positive economic news and corporate earnings reports sent the Dow Jones industrial average 99.35 points higher to 8,088.91. The Nasdaq composite index closed up 16.92 points at 1,342.19, while the S&P 500 gained 11.03 at 858.50.

In U.S. economic news, the Commerce Dept. reported that durable-goods orders for December increased US$0.4 billion or 0.2% to US$170.1 billion. This followed a 1.3% November decrease. Excluding transportation, new orders increased 1.1%.

The Conference Board reported that U.S. consumer confidence slipped only a little in January, despite war jitters. The headline index was 79, barely down from December’s upwardly revised 80.7 reading.

New home sales in the United States rose 3.5% in December to a new record high of 1.082 units, beating expectations.

The Canadian dollar finished down 0.16¢ at US65.43¢.