North American markets surged Tuesday after the Taliban ceded the Afghan capital to the U.S.-allied Northern Alliance.

The TSE 300 gained 100.60 points, or 1.4%, to close at 7,324.40.

That is just 20 points shy of where it closed on September 10 — the last trading session before the terrorist attacks

Today’s gains were broad-based with 12 of the TSE’s 14 sub-indices finishing higher. Metals and minerals and the tech-heavy industrial products sub-index led with gains of 3.8%.

Gold stocks gave up ground as the price of gold eased. The gold sub-index fell 2%.

Market volume was heavy at 169 million shares. Market momentum was strongly positive with advancers surpassing declines 584 to 477.

Nortel Networks, the day’s most active issue, gained 84¢ to $11.97, on a volume of 18 million shares. Other tech posting gains included Celestica, up $1.10 to $63.40, and JDS Uniphase up $1.40 to $18.35. ATI Technologies added 35¢ to $13.60.

Bombardier climbed 92 cents to $12.28. Microcell Telecommunications soared 46%, jumping $1.23 to $3.93.

Inco and Alcan led the metals and minerals group higher. Alcan rose $2.15 to $54.62. Inco added 84¢ to $24.19.

Among gold stocks, Barrick fell 75% to $24.51.

TD Waterhouse fell 7¢ to $15.08 as it reported plunging fourth quarter earnings of US1¢ per share.

Bank stocks did well today. Scotiabank added 34¢ to $49.06, and Royal Bank gained 39¢ to $49.11.

Trading was active on a volume of 28.2 million shares, with 160 advances and146 declines. The CDNX Index closed up 1.55 at 3,023.01

In New York, investors were back in force Tuesday as military progress in Afghanistan muted concerns over yesterday plane crash in New York.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 196.58 points, or 2.1%, to 9,750.95. The Nasdaq composite index was up 51.96 points, or 2.8%, to 1,892.09, and the S&P 500 added 20.76 points, or 1.9%, to 1,139.09.