Trading has been active and positive today, with the TSE 300 up 60 points to 7515.

An options expiration, coupled with the fact that today may be the last day of significant liquidity, has trading volume active at 94.5 million shares.

Buying is overwhelming the selling by about 3:1. Winners outnumber losers 11:8.

Techs are leading the way higher after Nortel Networks warned that its revenues will be lower than expected, but pro forma earnings may beat expectations.

Golds and energy stocks are popular, too. In fact, the financials are about the only weak spot, as everything else rallies modestly.

Nortel is up 10% on huge volume of 12.7 million shares at midday today. It’s half-warning, half-positive guidance is being read bullishly today. Nortel is taking everything techy with it today too. Celestica is rallying, along with Research in Motion, Cognos, ATI, and Descartes Systems.

Microcell is up about 9% too, after it announced that it has obtained initial proceeds of $31 -million from its recently completed rights offering and from private share placements with Capital Communications CDPQ Inc. and CIBC.

Other gainers include Bombardier, Barrick, Patheon, Onex, and Cognicase. Cognicase is up on news that it has successfully closed its public offering for gross proceeds of $44.44 million, to a syndicate of underwriters led by CIBC World Markets Inc.

The financials are down on balance, but it’s more of a rotation out of Argentina-exposed Bank of Nova Scotia, rather than a negative move for the sector. Scotia is down 2%, but CIBC, Sun Life and Bank of Montreal are up. Royal Bank is down a little.

Other losers include Telus, Potash Corp., Hemosol, Cryptologic, Agrium, CP Ships and Gildan.

Astral Media has dropped 2% on news that the Competition Bureau intends to oppose the transaction between Astral Media and Telemedia Corporation.

In New York, stocks are gaining, led by the techs, as traders shake off other worries. This bullish attitude was boosted by news that the University of Michigan consumer sentiment index beat expectations, sparking hopes that consumers will soon rebound.

The Dow Jones industrial average is up 26 points to 10,011. The Nasdaq composite is up 14 points to 1,933. The S&P 500 has added a mere point to 1,141.

The S&P/CDNX index makes the rally unanimous, gaining a single point to 980. Volume remains robust at 22.7 million shares.

Xentel DM Inc is the top trader, gaining 2% to $1.00 on more than 1 million shares.