Shaking off pre-open worries about a looming war with Iraq, markets are opening the week with a robust rally. Traders have been buying stocks across the board. At midday, the S&P/TSX index is up 56 points to 6828. Volume is heavy at 138 million shares, with the buying ahead of the selling by a big margin of about 11:3. Market breadth is also decisively positive, as winners outnumber losers nine to seven.

The rally is broad-based, with every sector showing a gain of some magnitude. Techs are leading the way, up 3%. Most of the other gains are very modest, with only diversifieds and industrials up by more than 1%.

Nortel is leading tech stocks higher. It has gained almost 5% in modest trading of 14.4 million shares. There is also strength in Zarlink Semi and Celestica.

In the telecom group, BCE is up 1.5%. Telus is down a little in heavy trading. And, Microcell has dropped another 13% to just 16¢ in heavy trading of more than 7.5 million shares.

The strength in techs and telecoms is also being reflected in the financials. TD Bank is up 1.3%, and Scotia has gained a similar amount. Royal Bank is up just 0.4%. Fairfax Financial is down 2% though.

The Fording take-over fight remains a key story too, with yet another higher bid coming from suitor, Sherritt. The stock is up 1.6%, with more than one million shares changing hands. Fording says it will be reviewing the proposed changes to the takeover bid by Sherritt Coal. “The fiduciary responsibility of the board is to examine all opportunities to maximize value for shareholders and that includes reviewing this latest proposal,” says Richard Haskayne, chairman of Fording. “We intend to move as quickly as possible to advise shareholders in order to preserve all of their choices.”

Golds are also a strong group today. Placer Dome is up 1.6%. And, there is buying in Eldorado Gold, Glamis Gold, Bema, Lionore Mining, McWatters Mining and Golden Star Resources.

Bombardier is also getting plenty of attention, up 4.4% in active trading.

On the downside, there is some weakness in Forzani, Fairmont Hotels, Shell Canada, Western Oil Sands, Southwestern Resources and Angiotech.

The good cheer in the markets is also being felt in New York, where the Dow Jones industrial average is up 138 points to 8740. The S&P 500 has gained 17 points to 925. The Nasdaq composite index is up 30 ticks to 1417.

There is some strength in S&P/TSX Venture index, today, too. It has gained eight ticks to 1111. Volume is huge at 29.2 million shares. Foothills Oil & Gas is the day’s top trader, flat at 34¢ on almost 3 million shares traded.