ItÕs another lazy day of trading, but the markets are up a bit. At midday, the Toronto Stock Exchange 300 composite index is up 10 points to 7640. Volume is weak at 44.7 million shares, with buyers holding a slight edge on sellers. Nonetheless, losers outnumber winners by a narrow margin.

The financials are sending the markets higher, today, powered by the banks. There are minor gains in techs and utilities, too. Golds are weak today, as are energy stocks, transports and merchandisers.

The banks are leading the way up in the midst of their latest earnings cycle. Hopes that interest rates are going down in Europe is helping their outlook, but a conspicuous mention of the sector on CNBC this morning is probably enough to account for today’s movement in a very light volume environment. CIBC, Royal, TD and BMO -among the day’s top traders – are up.

Other strong-trading gainers include CP, Nortel Networks and Bombardier. The winners list also includes Descartes Systems, Corel, Ballard Power, Cognos, CP Railway ad Telus.

Losers include AEC, Magna, Certicom, Regional Cablesystems, Research in Motion, QLT, Anderson Exploration, Rio Alto and Barrick. Transat is down about 4%, after it almost lost a plane in the Atlantic Ocean, terrifying passengers, crew and investors.

The CDNX is weaker today, too. ItÕs off six points to 3069. Volume is soft at 11.1 million shares. Energy stocks are driving the way lower, down 1.1%. Miners are off too, but techs are up. Brockton Capital Corp is the top trader, unchanged at 15¢ on 1.75 million shares.

In business news, Rogers Communications’s wholly owned subsidiary, Rogers Publishing has signed an agreement to sell Bowdens Media Monitoring for approximately $40 million to Observer AB.

TLC Laser Eye Centers and Laser Vision Centers Inc. have signed a definitive merger agreement that will see the firms combined in an all-stock deal.

In New York, trading has been rather quiet. The Dow Jones industrial average has dropped 23 points to 10400. The Nasdaq composite index is off 14 ticks to 1903. The S&P has shed six points to 1179.