Toronto stocks closed flat on Thursday in a slow session with U.S. markets closed for Independence Day. The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 5.70 points at 7,029.78.

Stocks finished off their highs of the day following news reports that gunfire at the Los Angeles International Airport Thursday left two people dead and two other wounded. The attack took place near the ticket counter of Israel’s El-Al airline.

U.S. authorities say they have no reason to believe the attack was related to terrorism.

Five of the TSX’s 10 subgroups closed higher, led by a 3.5% rise in the information technology group and a 0.9% increase in telecoms. Bargain hunters appeared to take advantage of beaten up tech stocks.

Shares of Nortel Networks Corp closed up 15¢ to $2.57, while Celestica Inc. gained $2.60 to $31.11.

Trading will likely be quiet Friday as New York markets are open for a shortened session, which ends at 13:00 ET.

June jobless reports for Canada and the United States will be released before the markets open Friday. A positive U.S. report could prompt traders to put aside concerns about corporate accounting and push markets upward.

The TSX Venture Exchange closed down 0.63 of a point at 1,136.97.

Thin trading affected the Canadian dollar, which finished up 0.15¢ at US65.44¢.