Markets are rallying aggressively Monday, although the volume is light and market-moving news is scant. At midday, the S&P/TSX composite index has gained 51 points to 7,128.

Despite the size of the rally, there’s no real news driving it. Traders may be anticipating strong second quarter profits news. As well, some traders are keeping their powder dry ahead of tomorrow’s rate decision by the Bank of Canada.

The flimsy nature of the rally is reflected in the fact that volume is light at 89.5 million shares, with buying volume outpacing the selling by almost four to one. Market breadth is narrower, although very bullish. Winners outnumber losers 55:38.

The rally is also broad-based with gains coming in almost every sector. Techs are getting the bulk of the gains, up more than 2%. there is also notable buying in golds, financials, energy, industrials and consumer stocks. Only the heath care stocks are down.

Nortel is leading the tech group higher, with a 1.3% gain on decent volume of 8.7 million shares. But there are bigger percentage gains in names such as Celestica, up almost 5%. ATI has gained 3.7%, and there is lots of buying in smaller names such as Global Thermoelectric and Mitec Telecom. BCE is up 1.4% too.

Royal Bank and Scotia are leading the financials higher with 1.4% and 1.5% gains, respectively. Sun Life is stronger, as is Bank of Montreal. The volatile Fairfax Financial has gained 4.5%, too.

Other notable winners include Bema Gold, Eldorado Gold, Kinross, EnCana, and Enterra Energy.

On the downside, Alcan is weaker. It is off 1.1% amid talk that will end up winning its bid for French rival Pechiney SA, although that may involve raising its bid.

MDS is leading the health care group down, sliding 5.6%. And, there is selling in Bombardier, Cogeco, Royal Group Tech, Methanex and Gerdau AmeriSteel Corp.

In M&A news, , Loblaws tycoon Galen Weston has won control of UK retailer Selfridges plc, after his £628 million offer for the firm was accepted by shareholders.

In New York, stocks opened strongly higher in anticipation of stong earnings reports this week. However, traders have no pulled back a bit from earlier intra-day highs.

At midday, the Dow Jones industrial average is up 138 points though to 9,257. The S&P 500 has gained 15 points to 1,013. The Nasdaq composite index has added 35 points to 1,769.

The small caps are ignoring all the froth among the big board traders, however. The S&P/TSX Venture index is down a point today to 1,122. Volume is also quite weak there with just 14 million shares traded. Aquest Explorations is the day’s top traders, up 3.3% on 386,000 shares.