By James Langton

(February 23 – 13:00 ET) – Stocks are rallying at midday today. The TSE 300 is up 75 points to 9,270. Volume is average these days at 153 million shares, although for a change the down volume is edging out the up volume. Decliners are edging advancers on balance too. Nevertheless, new highs this morning are outpacing new lows 3:1.

The gains are rather broad-based by sector, with strength in consumer products, industrials, utilities and financials. There are some deeply negative moves in the golds and energy stocks too, down 2.6% and 1.5% respectively.

Again the penny stocks are doing their part to pump up the volume. Repap is the volume leader, trading up 22% to 11¢ on 14 million shares. William Resource, Sikaman and Vengold are all trading huge volumes to the downside as some of their hype ebbs away.

Newbridge Networks is down 6% on 9.4 million shares, as the speculation surrounding its now-confirmed takeover by Alcatel unwinds.

ATI Technologies is back trading strongly today, up 11% on 3.2 million shares. Although they aren’t as hot with the day traders, techs are taking the market higher. Sierra Wireless, Certicom, JDS Uniphase and 724 Solutions are powering higher. A couple of biotechs are powering up too, Angiotech and QLT Phototherapeutics.

Although Newbridge is leading the losers, yesterday’s winners are tracking back today too. That means Ballard Power, Xenos, and MGI Software are all being hit by profit-takers. Suncor is down notably among the oil and gas stocks, off 4%.

The small caps are up today too. The CDNX index has risen 15 points to 3,583 on strong volume of 69 million shares. Miners are driving the CDNX higher over the objections of the energy and technology stocks. Savanna Resources Ltd is the leading trader, up 1¢ to 11¢ on 6.8 million shares.

In the U.S., traders are watching U.S. Federal Reserve Board chairman Greenspan’s testimony intently, pitching and rolling with his tone. The Dow is down 56 points at midday to 10,249. Nasdaq, however, is up 68 points to 4,450. The S&P is up just a point to 1,353.