Stocks opened higher Thursday, and have continued to climb throughout the morning.

At midday, the TSE 300 is up 73 points to 7,909.

Volume is robust today at 95.7 million shares, with buying doubling the selling action. Winners have an 11 to nine edge on losers.

The rally is fairly broad-based. There’s some weakness in telecoms, utilities, health stocks and pipelines, but most sectors are up. The tech stocks are particularly strong, as are financials, consumer stocks, miners and materials.

The banks are all bounding ahead today on economic recovery hopes after Canadian GDP numbers came in on the high side. Royal Bank is leading the way, up 2.4% in heavy volume. CIBC is up 2%, TD and Bank of Montreal aren’t far behind either. AGF has recovered 7% of its recent drop in an impressive rally on 2 million shares.

Nortel Networks is leading the techs higher, gaining 4% in active trading, as it shrugs off a sales warning from rival Juniper. Celestica is up strongly, too, as is Solectron, Cryptologic, Geac Computer and Royal Laser Tech. CGI is weaker however.

Steel stocks are also recovering some lost ground today, with Algoma up 12%, Stelco gaining 5%, and Co-Steel up almost 5%.

The biotechs are mixed to down, with Labopharm trading up, but QLT, Angiotech and Hemosol are all down sharply.

There’s also weakness in names such as Bema Gold, Pan American Silver, CP Rail and CanWest Global. BCE continues to trade heavily, with 3.6 million shares crossing the tape, but the price is more or less flat.

In market news, Dundee Bancorp has announced a 5% share buyback.

Astral Media says that it has received shareholder approval today for a two-for-one stock split.

Husky Oil and Petro-Canada are pledging to go ahead with their White Rose oil field project, located offshore from the east coast of Newfoundland. The platform will aim for peak production of approximately 100,000 barrels of oil per day. It is anticipated that the field will achieve first oil by the end of 2005. Development costs will be approximately $2.35 billion with costs to first oil being less than $2 billion.

In New York, the market opened higher and then flatlined, as traders braek for the long weekend. The Dow Jones industrial average is up 19 points to 10,446. The Nasdaq composite index has added 15 points to 1,842. The S&P 500 is up four points to 1,149.

The S&P/CDNX Composite Index makes the rally unanimous, it is up another four points to 1,179. Volume is strong again today at 23 million shares. Kensington Resources is the top trader, up 4% to $1.70 on more than 1 million shares traded.