Toronto stocks finished with modest gains on Thursday as investors moved to lock in profits after the recent market rally.

Energy shares rose in tandem with higher oil prices, but gold shares tumbled along with the price of gold bullion.

The Toronto Stock Exchange 300 composite index closed up 13.86 points at 7,958.11.

Ten of the 14 TSE sub-indexes advanced on Thursday, with energy stocks surging as oil prices rose to their highest levels in nearly six months.

The TSE oil and gas sub-index jumped 1.42%, led by Petro-Canada, up 53¢ at $40.15, and Canadian Natural Resources, up $1.75 to $50.

The gold sector sub-index tumbled 4% as the price of gold bullion continued to fall.

Barrick Gold fell $1.19 to $27.57, Placer Dome Inc. slumped 83¢ to $16.6,0 and Goldcorp dropped $1.33 to $23.88.

The industrials group gained 1.27%. Tech bellwether Nortel Networks added 26¢ to finish at $9.61.

Overall, 119.2 million shares were traded on the TSE, valued at $3.30 billion,.

The S&P/CDNX Composite Index closed up 16.10 at 1,169.79. Trading was heavy on a volume of 40.9 million shares, with 223 advances, 189 declines and 587 issues unchanged.

On Wall Street, stocks closed lower Thursday despite upbeat economic reports and more positive comments from U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 49 points to 10,525. The Nasdaq composite index ended down nine points, at 1,882, and the S&P 500 was off five points at 1,158.

The Canadian dollar lost some of the strength today. It edged lower by 0.09¢ to close at US63.16¢.