Stocks, which caught a boost from strong earnings in cell phone giant Nokia Oyj this morning, received more encouragement from Fed chairman Alan Greenspan in his testimony to the U.S. Senate.

At midday, this bullish tone has the TSE 300 up by 60 points to 7,658.

Volume is stronger today at 80 million shares, with buying overwhelming the selling by a margin of five to two. Winners outnumber losers by 11 to eight.

Today’s buying is broad-based. Apart from weakness in biotechs, and a rotation out of safe havens, gold and real estate, every other sector is up today.

Techs are leading the way higher, up 2.5%. Rocks, trees and energy stocks are all higher, too, on the general perception that the economy is turning around. Banks are up almost 1% .

Nortel Networks is leading the way higher at midday, gaining better than 3%. A rising tide in the tech sector is lifting all boats.

Celestica is gaining, as is Cryptologic, Wireless Matrix and Cinram. Pivotal is up 20% after announcing its own earnings results. Cryocath Technologies is up 5% on news that it is being added to the TSE 300.

Alcan is leading the mining group higher. It is up more than 2%, on improved prospects for the economy generally. There are also gains in Bombardier, CP Ships, Pangeo Pharma, Burntsand and Novagold.

All this bullish action is in turn boosting the financials, with gains in TD Bank, Royal Bank and Sun Life, all coming on decent volume.

Despite all the positive feeling in the market, Biovail is weighing on the positive momentum. It has dropped 7% on strong volume of 1.1 million shares. The biotech sector in general is suffering today, with notable losses in QLT and Angiotech, too.

Other losers include Teknion, Agnico Eagle, Goldcorp, SNC Lavalin, Coolbrands and Bell Canada International.

In business news, Ivanhoe Mines has arranged a US$15 million private placement financing with leading Canadian and Australian mutual funds. The proceeds will be used to finance its continuing gold and copper exploration program in Mongolia.

Also, Tembec reports that it generated a net loss of $38.7 million in its latest quarter, compared with net earnings of $50.4 million in the corresponding quarter in 2000, and net earnings of $4.9 million in the previous quarter.

In New York, economic recovery hopes and strong earnings in certain players are driving all the big markets higher. At midday, the Dow Jones industrial average is up 85 points to 9,815, well off its intra-day high.

Nasdaq has packed on another 29 points to 1,951. The S&P 500 is up eight points to 1.136.

The S&P/CDNX Composite Index is the only index ruining the consensus gains. It is flat at midday at 1,093. Volume is lighter than usual there too at 16 million shares. Versatile Mobile is the top trade, gaining 11% to 51¢ on 1.2 million shares.