Toronto stocks inched ahead Tuesday, as a drop in technology stocks and the energy group was offset by a somewhat positive performance in financials.

The S&P/TSX composite index finished up 3.42 points at 10,942.63.

Volume on the senior exchange was 265 million shares.

Half of the 10 TSX main sub-groups were ahead on the session, with the financials sector moving up 0.23%

Bank of Montreal reported fourth-quarter profit rose $657 million, a jump of 20% from the same period last year. BMO moved up $1.85, or 3.01%, to $63.30.

Scotiabank reported a $3.21-billion profit for 2005, up 10 per cent. The bank lifted its quarterly dividend by 2¢, to 36¢ per common share. Shares moved down $1.09, down 2.31%, to $46.00.

The energy sector fell 0.22%. The benchmark January contract fell 86¢ to US$56.50 a barrel in New York trading.

EnCana Corp. moved ahead 3¢, or 0.06%, to $52.13.

Gold for December delivery ended up 80¢ at US$499.10 an ounce after hitting an overnight high of US$502.30.

Statistics Canada reported that Canada’s trade surplus increased by $4.4 billion to $9.3 billion on a seasonally adjusted basis.

The Canadian dollar moved 0.05 of a cent lower to US85.57¢ even as Canada’s current-account trading surplus, on a seasonally adjusted basis, increased $4.4 billion to $9.3 billion.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite finished down 3.17 points, or 0.15%, to 2,046.94.

In New York, markets were slightly down despite positive economic news.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 2.56 points to 10,888.16, after nearly reaching the 11,000-point plateau in early trading.

The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 6.66 points at 2,232.71, while the S&P 500 inched ahead by 0.02 of a point at 1,257.48.

Orders to U.S. factories for durable goods rebounded 3.4% in October. That was a big improvement over the 2% decline in September.

Sales of new homes in the U.S. soared 13% to a fresh record in October, surprising analysts.

The Conference Board said its consumer sentiment index jumped to 98.9 this month from 85.2 in October.