Stocks are making modest gains in a rather light session, as U.S. markets remain closed for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. At midday, the S&P/TSX composite index has gained 24 pointsto sit at 8,546, with 133.7 million shares changing hands.

The buying is well ahead of the selling by a margin of 47:13. Market breadth is also bullish, as winners outnumber losers 59:49.

The only economic data out this morning was a report on foreign securities transactions from Statistics Canada, which is having little impact on the market.

Instead, individual corporate stories are driving the trade, as is speculation over the Bank of Canada’s rate decision coming tomorrow.

On the TSX, Tech stocks 3.3% today as traders continue to warm to the sector’s prospects. Health care stocks are up more than 1% so far today. There are more modest gains in most other groups, while golds, financials and utilities are all sliding a bit.

Nortel is leading the trade once again, up 4.4% on volume of 12.3 million shares. Growing optimism around the tech sector generally seems to be behind the move, following positive earnings news in several big U.S. tech stocks last week. Traders don’t seem to be bothered by the news that BCE will be turning to Cisco, rather than Nortel, for its’ Internet telephony equipment needs.

Celestica is up 6.5%, and there are large gains in numerous other beaten up tech names. Zarlink Semi has gained more than 10%, JDS Uniphase is up 24% today, Infowave Software, CSI Wireless, Mitec, ATI and Certicom are all posting large gains, too.

The other big winner on the day is Hollinger. It has jumped 89% on news of a possible deal to sell many of its assets to a pair of British billionaires. Traders are ignoring the news that Hollinger’s board of directors has elected not to declare a quarterly cash dividend on its preferred shares. The Hollinger board also announced that Gordon Walker has been appointed as a director, and as a member of Hollinger’s audit committee.

The weak name of the day is TD Bank. It is down 4.3% in heavy trading on news that talks about merging its’ TD Waterhouse unit with E*Trade Financial Corp. have come to an end without a deal.

The news isn’t weighing much on other stocks in the sector. They are mostly mixed. Manulife is up 1.2%, Royal Bank is higher at midday too. But, Sun Life and Bank of Montreal are both down.

Molson continues to slide. As well, there is weakness in Petrobank, Pengrowth, Pembina, WestJet, Angiotech, Bombardier and Goldcorp.

Rona is down 2.2%, despite news that it has opened its first couple of stores in western Canada today. Other retail names are making gains though, led by Sears Canada and Shoppers Drug Mart.

Other gainers include Nextair and Com Dev.

In earnings news, Luxell Technologies’ net loss for the first quarter was improved to $1,753,242, compared with a loss of $1,956,550 for the first quarter of 2003.

The S&P/TSX Venture index is following the senior market with a small gain of its own. The index is sitting five points higher at midday to 1,773. Volume is holding up fairly well there too at 37.5 million shares. Cantex Mine Development is leading the way, up a penny to 11¢ with a hefty 4.3 million shares changing hands.