Markets are clinging to small gains in Friday’s session. The TSE 300 is up 13 points at midday to 6,998.

Volume is on the light side at 63 million shares, with buyers holding a very slight edge over sellers. Winners also have a tiny edge on losers.

The strength is centred in financials this morning, on hopes of further cuts to interest rates following some ugly economic data coming out of the United States.

Conglomerates are strong, as are chemicals. There’s also some light buying in golds, transports and paper stocks. Oils, techs, real estate and merchandisers are weak.

Bank of Nova Scotia is leading the banks higher, up 2%, in heavy trading. It is joined by smaller gains in TD Bank and CIBC, on strong volume.

Manulife Financial is up about 2% too, leading the insurers higher. Power Financial and Power Corp. are up after announcing some strong results.

There are also gains in Teck, Enerflex, Cott, Methanex, and Potash.

Zarlink Semiconductor is one strong tech, up more than 5%, after announcing is adjusted net loss for the quarter was better than expected at $27.2 million. This compares with adjusted net income of $25.1 million for the same period last year.

Otherwise, techs are rather weak. Celestica is leading the way down, off about 3% in active trading. Nortel Networks is down more than 2%. Bell Canada International, Intertape Polymer and Rogers Wireless are down, too.

There are also losses in Bombardier, Quebecor, Moore Corp., CP Ships and Trizec Hahn.

In other news, Emera’s consolidated earnings were $17.3 million in the third quarter of 2001, compared with $4.9 million for the same period in 2000. The higher earnings were driven by a $9.3 million increase in electric margin, a result of increased sales and falling natural gas prices; and an increase in earnings from the Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline, which recorded $3.6-million of one-time charges in the third quarter of last year.

In New York, markets are also sloughing off a brutal jobs report to head higher. Confirmation of Microsoft’s deal on its anti-trust case seems to be cheering traders, too.

The Dow is up 70 points to 9,334. Nasdaq is up 12 ticks to 1,758. The S&P is up two ticks to 1,086.

The CDNX is joining the rally today too, gaining 14 points to 2980 on light volume of 11 million shares.

Techs and miners are leading the way higher, while oils are down. International Starteck Industries is the top trader, up 12.5% to 9¢ on 755,000 shares.