With little news to drive trading, stocks are grinding their way higher Wednesday. At midday, the S&P/TSX composite index is up 11 points at 7,053.

Volume is still solid however at 115 million shares, with the buying outpacing the selling by seven to four. Market breadth is certainly positive, as winners outnumber losers 19:13.

The morose nature of the trade is evident in the lack of compelling sector moves. Techs are the only thing moving as much as 1%, they are down 1.6% following a warning from Texas Instruments.

Texas Instruments issued a warning late Tuesday linked to the SARS outbreak in Asia. It now expects revenue growth of about 5% in the second quarter, instead of its original forecast of 7%.

Industrials and consumer discretionary stocks are down, too. The strongest gains are in energy stocks, golds, diversifieds and health care.

EnCana is leading the way for the energy group, following an OPEC meeting that seems to portend higher oil prices. It is up 1.4% on strong volume. There are also notable gains in Canadian Natural Resources, Pengrowth Energy Trust, First Calgary Petroleums, Petro Canada, Ventus Energy, Progress Energy and Ivanhoe Energy.

Ivanhoe is the day’s big winner, up 38% in heavy volume on news that it has begun an expansion program at its South Midway-Sunset field in California, after securing a new $5 million credit facility to finance the project.

Banks remain popular stocks, with TD Bank up almost 1% in heavy trading. Royal Bank and Bank of Montreal are up a bit, Scotia is flat and CIBC is down.

There are also gains in Brascan, Biomira, Bema Gold, TLC, Sino Forest and Descartes Systems.

Descartes notwithstanding, the techs are generally weaker, led by a 1.4% slide in Nortel, on relatively moderate volume. JDS Uniphase is 4.5% lower, Celestica, Royal Group Tech and Cognos are all weaker too. Cognos is down despite a report from IDC suggesting that it has increased its leadership position in the worldwide business intelligence tools market.

Other losers include Bombardier, Air Canada, Gildan Activewear, and Hudson’s Bay.

In earnings news, Investment Executive’s parent company, Transcontinental, reported that it earned $37.3 million in the second quarter. It also maintained its earnings per share guidance of $1.60 to $1.68 for fiscal 2003.

In the transports area, Transat AT recorded a net income of $15.4 million for the quarter, compared with a net income of $15.5 million in the corresponding quarter of 2002. The corporation also recorded a $3.7 million restructuring charge.

Linmor cut its net loss for the fourth quarter to $1,906,879 and the annual loss came in at $5,743,932.

In other business news, Adherex Technologies was issued a new U.S. patent that it says significantly strengthens its anticancer drug candidate portfolio.

Lorus Therapeutics completed its previously announced public offering for gross proceeds of $28.5 million. The offering of units of Lorus was completed by a syndicate of agents led by Loewen, Ondaatje, McCutcheon Ltd. that also included Dundee Securities Corp., Harris Partners Ltd. and Haywood Securities Inc.

In New York, markets are higher on the expectation that the Federal Reserve Board may be cutting interest rates soon.

The Dow Jones industrial average has gained 43 points to 9,097 on rate cut speculation. The S&P 500 is up just a point to 986. The Nasdaq composite has clawed its way back to unchanged at 1,628 after opening lower.

The small caps are making a small gain, too, with the S&P/TSX Venture index up two and a half points to 1,101. Volume is decent at 16.5 million shares. Apac Minerals is the day’s top trader, gaining just a penny to 53¢ on 1.1 million shares.