By Jeff Sanford

(March 5 – 18:00 ET) – Toronto stocks put is a strong performance today ahead of tomorrow’s much anticipated Bank of Canada announcement on interest rates.

The TSE 300 finished gained 92.44 points, or 1.15%, to 8099.29. Some 146 million shares traded as investors waited to here what the new Bank of Canada governor has to say. David Dodge is expected to cut rates by either 25 or 50 basis points.

Market breadth among the TSE sub-indices was broadly positive. Only consumer products lost ground. Biovail, which fell $5.53 to $59.66, was responsible for the 2.06%. drop in this sector.

On the upside, the gold, metals, oil and paper sectors all gained more than 2%. Also doing well were financials, up 1.45%, utilities up 1.62% and pipeline up 1.84%.

Among individual issues, market breadth was similarly positive. Advancing issues handily outpaced decliners, 661 to 414.

Among tech stocks, Nortel Networks gained 2.10% today t0 $27.21, while C-Mac lost 5.48% to 34.50. It looks like arbitrageurs are finally whittling down the difference between Nortel and its biggest supplier, as the two stocks usually move in tandem.

Bombardier continues to sell off, falling another 4.29% to $20.10. With no news, profit taking is the likely reason for the decline.

An announcement by Abitibi Consolidated that it is opening a new “de-inking” plant helped that stock to a 3.76% gain to close at $12.15 in heavy trading today.

Methanex gained 7.61% to close at $11.03.

Among the financial stocks, BMO was also up strongly. It closed $29.60, a 4.07% increase.

It looks like momentum traders got a hold of Northern Financial stock after it announced a profitable quarter. The stock gained 33.33% today to close at 10¢.

The CDNX advanced 17.74 points at 3,109.10. Volume was relatively light at 34 million shares. Market breadth was positive with 242 advancers and 230 decliners

The loonie lost 0.29% today to close at US64.63¢.

In New York, volume was light as a result of a major snow storm.. Traders that did make it into the office seemed to be bargain shopping, advancing markets slightly. The up trend can’t be considered a determined rally, though.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 95.99 to 10,562.30. The Nasdaq composite advanced 25.29 points to 2142.92, while the S&P 500 added 7.08 points to 1,241.26.