Toronto stocks fell again on Wednesday, dragged down by bank and gold stocks.

The Toronto Stock Exchange 300 composite index finished down 26.41 points at 7,497.06.

Overall, seven of the TSE 300’s 14 sub-indexes were lower with the golds falling 4.3%. Financial stocks slipped 0.6% on concerns over exposure to failed energy trader Enron Corp.

Market volume was 246 million shares. Decliners stepped over advancers 604 to 486.

TD Bank was off 72¢, at $40.94 and Royal Bank of Canada slipped 29¢ at $47.52.

Venture capital stocks weren’t immune to today’s downtrend. The S&P/CDNX Composite Index closed down 3.91 points at 1,137.42. Trading was heavy on a volume of 45.1 million shares with 218 advances and 247 declines.

In New York, stocks ended lower Wednesday as a surprise positive preannouncement from Cisco couldn’t make up for lackluster results from other companies and more concerns over accounting practices.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended with a loss of 32.04 points at 9,653.39. The Nasdaq composite index dropped 25.79 points to 1,812.73, and the S&P 500 was off 6.51 points at 1,083.51.

The Canadian dollar fell US0.29¢ to US62.32¢.