Toronto stocks finished flat on Wednesday in thin holiday-week trading. The S&P/TSX composite index rose 7.16 points to close at 6,990.30.

The information technology sector finished the session 3.6% ahead and the gold index added 2.3%..

Technology shares were enjoying the news that Merrill Lynch had upgraded its rating on software giant Microsoft, and also played catch-up to the U.S. markets after being closed on Tuesday.

Shares of Nortel Networks jumped 42¢ to $4.06, while ATI Technologies rose 55¢ to $13.95.

Among gold issues, Meridian Gold rose $1.17 to $16.57, while Barrick Gold added 50¢ to $24.49.

The heavily weighted financial services index slipped 0.2%, while the energy index fell nearly 2% after natural gas inventories were reported stronger than expected. EnCana slid 95¢ to $50.75.

Ski resort operator Intrawest was a big winner, gaining $1.24, or 7%, to $19.01 on the news that Vancouver-Whistler has won the 2010 winter Olympics. The firm runs the big resort at Whistler.

n addition to the winning Vancouver bid, the World Health Organization removed Toronto from its list of areas with recent SARS cases. The two announcements sent the Canadian dollar up 0.49 of a cent to close at US74.7¢.

The S&P/TSX Venture composite index closed up 8.24 at 1,112.13.

Trading was active on a volume of 31.3 million shares worth $12.7 million, with 230 advances, 163 declines and 467 issues unchanged.

In New York, stocks climbed as a stronger-than-expected 0.4% gain in factory orders for May spurred investor optimism.

Anxious to put money to work at the start of the new quarter and emboldened by Tuesday’s late rally, investors snapped up a broad array of stocks and took particular interest in technology.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 101.89 points to 9,142.84, while the S&P 500 rose 11.4 points to 993.76. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index climbed 38.64 points, or 2.36 percent, to 1,678.77.

Brokerage stocks gave the market a bit of a boost for a second day in a row, bolstered by the dismissal of an investor lawsuit dagainst Merrill Lynch & Co.