Toronto stocks continued their broad-based rally on Monday. The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 65.82 points or 0.75% at 8,812.91. Volume was 259.4 million shares.

Last week the index rose 1.8%.

Overall, nine of the TSX index’s 10 main indexes were higher, led by a 3.65% jump in the information technology sector and a 0.70% rise in the heavily weighted financial group.

Technology stocks benefited from a better than expected revenue outlook from Siebel Systems, a U.S.-based software firm.

In Toronto, tech bellwether Nortel Networks rose 20¢, or 4.55% to $4.50.

Cognos gained $1.47, or 3.19%, to $47.57 after announcing it had completed its acquisition of Swedish software maker Frango AB for $53.1 million in cash.

Oil prices eased on Monday after rebels in Nigeria withdrew a threat to target oil operations, although lingering concerns over stretched supplies kept prices close to US$50 a barrel.

The slight dip in crude prices gave a psychological boost to a market concerned about the profit-crushing impact of high energy costs. Despite the retreat, the energy sector still ended up 0.04%
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Encana added 55¢ or 0.93% to $59.80, while Petro-Canada gained 36¢ or 0.55% to $66.16.

Those gains were tempered by a 1.2% drop in the gold index as the price of the precious metal dropped on a rebounding U.S. dollar and a pullback in oil prices.

Among individual stocks, shares of the new Air Canada pushed higher as they began trading today, gaining more than 25 per cent from their issue price of $20. ACE Aviation Holdings voting shares were up $4.80 to $24.80.

Shares of Riverside Forest Products closed up, $3.55, almost 10%, at $38.80 after International Forest Products (Interfor) said it is buying the company for $396 million in a friendly takeover bid.

The bid trumps an earlier $29-a-share offer from Tolko Industries that Riverside’s management had criticized as inadequate.

Interfor shares slipped 8¢, or 0.98%, to $8.10.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index slid 7.25 points or 0.44% to 8,812.91.

In New York, the rally on Wall Street cooled Monday as oil prices pared some losses, though technology stocks were still the big gainers as investors grew upbeat about the outlook for economic and corporate-profit growth.

The Dow Jones industrial average finished up 23.89 points or 0.23% at 1,0216.54, and the S&P 500 added 3.67 points or 0.32% to 1,135.10.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index gained 10.20 or 0.53% to 1,952.40, led higher by software shares that jumped after Siebel Systems said third-quarter revenue was going to top analysts’ forecasts.

In economic news, new orders at U.S. factories fell unexpectedly in August as demand for civilian aircraft weakened, government data showed on Monday. But excluding transportation equipment, the data showed some strength.