Toronto stocks closed Thursday with slight gains, shrugging off weakness in tech and telecom sectors.

The Toronto Stock Exchange S&P/TSE composite index finished up 23.19 points at 7,670.49.

Overall, all but two of the 10 TSX subgroups finished higher.
But tech issues fell 3.09%, and telecoms slipped 2.74%.

Nortel Networks fell 18¢ to $4.93, while Celestica dropped $1.80 to $41.25.

BCE shed 67¢ to $26.88, while Telus dropped 95¢ to $14.55.

ALI Technologies jumped $10.64 to $43.14, helping health care stocks to a 1.82% gain, after U.S. drug wholesaler McKesson Corp. said it had agreed to buy the medical imaging firm for $530 million.

Canada Life gained $1.01 to $39.10 as it reported better profits. Molson also rose (up 35¢ to $35.80) as it reported its profits rose 81%.

Toronto volume was 182.9 million shares. Market momentum was positive, as advancers outnumbered decliners 567 to 490.

The S&P/CDNX composite index slipped 3.58 at 1,154.59. Trading was heavy on a volume of 37.7 million shares.

On Wall Street, blue-chips struggled at times but managed to close higher Thursday, while tech stocks weren’t as fortunate, finishing the day just above their worst levels of the session.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 31.83 points to 10,091.46. The Nasdaq lost 32.65 points to 1,644.88., and the S&P 500 dipped 1.9 points to 1,084.56.

The Canadian dollar slipped US0.10¢ to close at US63.97¢.