Stock markets managed to keep their heads above water Thursday despite less-than-impressive U.S. economic data and below-expectation profits in the technology sector.

In Canada, the S&P/TSX composite index rose 20.17 points or 0.24% to 8423.94, with gains in the tech and finance sectors offsetting losses in gold and metal stocks. The TSX Venture Exchange composite index fell 27.79 points or 1.57% to 1746.23.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 15.48 points, or 0.15%, at 10,553.85, buoyed by IBM Corp.’s gain of 4.11%. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index ended up 1.53 points, or 0.14%, at 1132.05. The announcement that after J.P. Morgan Chase was buying Bank One for US$55 billion helped bank stocks in the U.S.

The technology-focused Nasdaq composite Index finished down 2.06 points, or 0.10%, at 2,109.07. Apple Computer Inc. ranked among the biggest percentage losers in the Nasdaq 100, despite a strong profit on sales of its popular iPod digital music player. Intel Corp., Apple Computer Inc. and Yahoo Inc. didn’t have a bad quarter, but they didn’t measure up to expectations.

The Canadian dollar fell again Thursday, continuing the plunge that started Wednesday. It closed at US77.17¢ vs US77.62¢ on Wednesday.

In corporate news, AGF Management Ltd. said it is expanding its private wealth-management business through the acquisition of P.J. Doherty & Associates Co., an investment counselling firm for high-net-worth individuals and institutions based in Ottawa. Terms of the 100% cash deal were not announced. AGF stock gained 4¢ to $17.64.

Transat A.T. Inc., operator of Air Transat airlines, jumped $1.90 to $13.50 after profit from continuing operations doubled to $22.2-million or 58$ a share for 2003 despite the SARS scare. Transat has also sold its French online travel agency for a pre-tax gain of $72-million.

Research In Motion stock reached its highest level since January 2001, as investors digested news that the BlackBerry maker has increased the size of an already large stock offering. The stock closed at $106.10, up $3.88 on the TSX.

Elsewhere, the Investment Funds Institute of Canada said that mutual fund net sales topped the $1 billion mark in December. But it wasn’t enough to bail out a weak 2003. IFIC reported that December net sales, excluding re-invested distributions of $1.8 billion, totaled $1.1 billion. Net sales for all funds including re-invested distributions were $2.9 billion. However, for the full year, IFIC said the industry saw $606.6 million in net redemptions. The weakness was all due to money market funds, which suffered $5.9 billion in net redemptions for the year, whereas long-term funds generated $5.3 billion in net sales for the full year.

In other business news, the C.D. Howe Institute said the Bank of Canada should lower its key interest rate by a quarter point to 2.5% at its first 2004 meeting next week, in part because the loonie is strong, the Canadian economy is weakening and inflation remains muted. Seven of the 12 members of the think tank’s monetary policy council recommended the bank bring Canadian interest rates down to 2.5%, the institute said Tuesday. Meanwhile, three recommended the rate stay at 2.75%, while one economist favoured a half-point reduction and one wanted to see an increase at the rate-setting meeting next Tuesday.

Bank of Nova Scotia CEO Rick Waugh said the gap between Canadian financial institutions and their international competitors is growing in the wake of the US$58-billion merger of J.P. Morgan and Bank One in the United States. He said after a speech in Toronto that means Canada’s Big Five banks risk being marginalized on the international scene as they await the federal government’s new policy on mergers in the financial sector, not expected until later this summer. “It shows that the financial world doesn’t stand still and, after [Wednesday’s] announcement and others, the gap between us, the Canadian financial institutions, and some of our competitors obviously widens,” he told reporters.