(August 30 – 17:30 ET) – The Toronto Stock Exchange 300 composite index finished the day on another up note. It gained 45.17 points, closing at 11173.60.

Trading was light, though, as many market players are absent duringt eh final week of summer. No discernable trading trends are emerging.

Overall, seven of the TSE’s 14 subindices were up. The biggest advance was in the media sector where Seagram shares gained 6.3% as players await Canadian regulatory approval of its merger with Vivendi. The metals and minerals subindex did well. On the downside were the utilities and conglomerates subindices. Both dropped over 1%.

The financial subindex also did well, gaining 1.51% during the day. TD was up .3%. Scotiabank climbed 4.12% based on its earnings news. Scotia has taken over the number four spot in the Canadian bank asset hierarchy after it’s announcement, yesterday, that it boosted its assets by 7% in its third quarter.

Nortel was up 70¢ to $118.95, while Husky Energy also continued to rise, gaining 20¢ to close at $13.90. Plaintree was off 15.6% today as the momentum players who pumped it up last week, abandoned it.

The CDNX added 26.65 points today, closing at 3447.25. Trading was heavy as 40.3 million shares changed hands.

The loonie climbed today, even though traders expected the flood of bond maturities September 1st to suppress the currency. Some $1.4 trillion of bond maturity and coupon payments happen this Friday. Some traders believe that should act to knock the dollar down slightly. Nevertheless, the Canadian dollar ended up .62% at 67.70¢ U.S. Wednesday.

In the U.S., Wall Street was consumed today by news that Swiss financial firm Credit Suisse Group is going to buy up Wall Street broker Donaldson, Lufkin andJenrette for a staggering $11.5 billion, a premium of almost 10% on Tuesday’s closing price. Shares in DLJ promptly rose over 5% Wednesday on the news. More than 8 million of DLJ shares traded. Daily volume is usually no more than half a million. Shares in other Wall Street names like Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns and J.P. Morgan were up on the DLJ news as speculation turns to the question: Who will be the next big Wall Street investment bank that gets swallowed?

Overall the Dow Jones industrial composite index was down 111.72 points to close at 11103.38. The NASDAQ composite index closed up 21.74 points, while the S&P 500 was down 7.16 points at 1502.68.