A bit of good news about oil prices went a long way Monday, as North American markets posted healthy gains in morning trading.

At midday, Toronto’s S&P/TSX composite was up 27.28 points or 0.33% at 8199.91, while the junior TSX Venture Exchange rose 4.31 points or 0.29% to 1484.32.

In New York, The Dow industrial average jumped 96.9 points or 0.99% to 9922.25. The Nasdaq was up 23.62 points or 1.34% at 1780.84, while the S&P 500 rose 11.09 points or 1.04% to 1075.890.

The Canadian dollar was off 0.01 of a cent at US76.39¢.

In Toronto, the TSX was led by the technology subsector, which was up 2.16% at noon. The index was led by Nortel Networks Corp., which was ahead 14¢ or 3.19% to $4.53 on the usual heavy volumes; the company reports its second-quarter earnings on Thursday.

Also up was the gold sub-index (0.84%) and financials (up 0.27%); the latter were slowed by heavy trading in Toronto-based Northern Financial Corp., which reported on Friday a drop in revenues and increase it its loss for the first quarter of fiscal 2005; its shares were off 2¢ or more than 36% to 0.035¢ with more than 3.6 million shares trading hands Monday morning.

But the TSX was held back by energy stocks, which were off 0.64% at noon.

Dow components trading higher included Home Depot, up 47s at US$33.61, and Intel, up 24¢ at US$21.80. Alcoa was up 54¢ at US$30.17. Lowe’s Cos., the No. 2 home improvement retailer behind Home Depot, helped push the market higher after it reported an 18% increase in second-quarter profit even though results trailed estimates as sales weakened in June. Lowe’s was up US$2.85, or 6.11%, to US$49.50.

Crude oil futures fell from a record high after initial results suggested Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez survived a recall vote, easing fears of a disruption in supply from the world’s fifth-largest exporter. September crude futures traded at US$46.45 a barrel, down from the record US$46.90 per barrel hit earlier in the day in after-hours electronic trading at the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The referendum in the South American country was one of a slew of factors worldwide that have driven prices to a series of record highs in recent weeks.

In overseas markets, London’s FTSE 100 was up 27.9 points at 4,329.4. Frankfurt’s DAX 30 gained 0.86%, while the Paris CAC 40 was up 0.26%.

Asian stock markets closed mostly lower, with prices slipping in Tokyo following news that Japan’s economy had been growing more slowly than many expected.

Tokyo’s Nikkei Stock Average of 225 issues dropped 69.39 points, or 0.65%, to 10,687.81. The Nikkei slipped as investors sold supermarket operators and other issues reliant on domestic consumption after the government reported Friday that Japan’s economy grew 0.4% in April-June.

In Hong Kong, the main Hang Seng Index fell 140.08 points, or 1.13%, to 12,219.75. Prices fell on worries that high oil prices would hurt the global economy, brokers said.