By Jeff Sanford

(September 1 – 18:00 ET) – The Toronto Stock Exchange chalked up its 9th record closing in the past 15 days, today. It made a 141 point advance. The TSE 300 composite index hit an intraday record high of 11,400 points today before dropping back to finish at 11,388.82 points.

The gain came on the heals of U.S. employment data, released this morning, that suggests the U.S. labour market is cooling slightly andwill maintain growth without inflation.

Overall, the TSE advance was broad. While 664 issues advanced, only 403 declined. Among the subindices, only transportation and conglomerates finished the day down. Both dropped by less than 1%. Leading the way on the upside were the industrial products index and the merchandising index, which rose 1.58% and 1.41% respectively. Trading, though, was light. Only 116 million shares traded.

In individual stock news one of the biggest advances was Bid Com, up 27.5%. Axcan Pharma Inc., which was added to the 300 this morning, finished the day up 33%. Global Data Inc., a maker of remote communications devices, was up 28% on news that it had signed a contract to provide the Texas Utilities Corp. automatic meter readers.

The CDNX finished the day up at 3,585.33, a gain of 72.25 points. Overall, 379 issues advanced and 198 declined. Volume was heavy at 44 million shares.

The Canadian dollar finished down slightly from its big advance yesterday, closing at 67.89¢ U.S. Friday. That’s down from 67.95¢ U.S. yesterday.

In the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial composite index finished the day up 23.68 points at 11238.78. The NASDAQ composite index finished the day up 27.98 points at 4234.33 and the S&P 500 finished the day up 3.09 points at 1520.77