Toronto stocks missed a final-hour rally that lifted the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq into positive territory Wednesday.

At the close, the S&P/TSX Composite Index was down 49.93 points at 7,638.38.

Overall, 10 of the 13 industry groups lost ground, led by a 1.68% decline in the information technology group.

Nortel fell 21¢ to $3.95; Cognos dropped 73¢ to $36.36; and Celestica fell 29¢ to $47.86.

The financial services index dropped 0.89%. All of the big five banks lost ground. TD Bank was off 85¢ to $38.30; Bank of Nova Scotia fell $1.09 to $51.86.

Royal Bank fell 45¢ to $55 despite posting fatter second quarter profits.

National Bank fell 52¢ to $31.72. The bank said today it will sell its First Marathon Mortgage subsidiary to ING Financial for an undisclosed amount.

Power Financial rose 15¢ to $40.25. It upped its quarterly dividend by 8.3%.

Sun Life Financial fell 28¢ to $33.90. The firm said it would take a 30% stake in C.I. Fund Management. C.I. would in turn get $13.2 billion in mutual fund assets from Sun Life-owned Spectrum Mutual Funds and Clarica-owned Clarica Diversico mutual funds. C.I. rose 16¢ to $11.76.

Most gold stocks continued to climb. Kinross Gold gained 23¢ to $4.06.

Toronto volume was 253.2 million shares, as decliners beat advancers 616 to 514, with 203 unchanged.

The TSX Venture Exchange was ahead 13.59 points to 1,216.

In New York, stocks spent the bulk of the session Wednesday in negative territory but after a late rally the major averages closed higher, breaking a two-day losing streak.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended with a gain of 52.17 points to 10,157.88. The Nasdaq composite index added 9.27 points o 1673.45, and the S&P 500 rose 6.14 points to 1,086.02.

The major indices sprang to life in the last half hour of the day — possibly as a result of a rumor, subsequently denied by the U.S. military, that Osama bin Laden had been captured.

The Canadian dollar continued to climb, rising US0.18¢ to US65.20¢.

The dollar got a boost after April inflation figures led the markets to think the Bank of Canada would be more likely to boost rates at its June 4 policy meeting. The core rate of inflation, which excludes volatile energy prices and is most closely watched by policy makers, edged up slightly last month.