It was a good day for stocks in Toronto, today. Good news for Nortel Networks Corp. meant good news for tech stocks. A $1.1 billion supply and services deal between Nortel and U.S. network carrier Sprint Corp. boosted a market already positive in light of prospective rate cuts by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

The Toronto Stock Exchange 300 composite index gained 55.33 points to close at 7,079.30, its highest close since Sept.13.

Tech stocks powered the move, rising 3.49 percent on the day. Nortel rose to its highest close since August, reaching $10.00 on a gain of 65¢, or 7%.

Other tech stocks making gains included Celestica Inc. which added $2.00, or 3.4 percent, to close at $61.00.Sierra Wireless Inc. climbed $3.11, or 13.7% to $25.85.

Overall, ten of the 14 TSE 300 sub-indexes finished higher, as financial stocks rose 1.25%, led by Royal Bank of Canada, the largest stock of the TSE. It rose 95¢ to $48.45.CIBC jumped 72¢ to $51.82.

It wasnÕt a good day for CanadaÕs venture exchange though. The CDNX slid 24.76 to 2972.35 on a volume of 27.0 million shares worth 7.6 million dollars, with 131 advances, 221 declines and 552 issues unchanged.

South of the border, technology stocks led a strong rally. Investors were buoyed by hope of deep interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve as well as a positive surprise from tech giant Cisco Systems.

The NASDAQ composite index finished at level unseen since the end of August. It gained 47.74 points, or 2.73%, finishing at 1,793.47. The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 117.49 points to 9,441.03. The Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 15.61 points to 1,102.81.