The Toronto Stock Exchange 300 composite index made only modest gains today, as investors await tomorrowÕs meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve which is expected to cut interest rates for the seventh time this year.

The TSE 300 rose 22.41 points to 7525.16. Declining issues surpassed advancing issues by a slight margin – 481 to 475. Trading volume was 100.6 million shares.

Seven of the TSE’s 14 stock groups ended higher. Technology stocks continued to suffer. Telecommunications-equipment maker Ciena lowered earnings expectations for the rest of the fiscal year and fiscal 2002. The fall-out caused the technology-laden industrial products sector to fall 1.2%.

The drop included Nortel Networks which fell 10¢ to $10.20, and fiber-optics equipment company JDS Uniphase which dropped 0.45 to 12.50. Research In Motion slipped 2.63 to 28.75 and Celestica lost 2.20 to 58.30.

The gold group fared the worst, losing 1.7%. Also a loser, today, was the consumer products group. It slipped 0.59%.

The financial services sub-index, bucked the general trend, gaining 1.67%. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce reported its third-quarter results, today, beating analyst expectations. The bank’s adjusted net for the quarter was $1.12 a diluted share. Royal Bank of Canada rose 0.84 to 52.82. Bank of Montreal rose 1.05 to 41.90, and Bank of Nova Scotia added 0.25 to 47.75.

In New York, the indexes finished higher – a boost from Friday’s declines. American investors were buoyed by an economic report that U.S. leading indicators rose in July, for the fourth month in a row.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 79.29 points to 10320.07. The NASDAQ composite index rose 0.77 per cent to 1881.34. The Standard & Poor’s 500 climbed 9.44 points to 1171.41.

The Canadian dollar slipped slightly to US$0.647 on Monday.