By James Langton
(September 11 – 13:00 ET) – The TSE, or rather Nortel Networks, has been on a wild ride this morning. The mood on Nortel opened gloomy, slamming the TSE 300 down 160 points immediately after the open, but by 10:00 ET the buyers came piling back to Nortel driving it up, taking the TSE along, too. At midday the TSE 300 is up 85 points to 10,904.
Volume is strong at 83.4 million shares, with a 13:12 edge for the buyers. However, decliners are slightly outnumbering advancers.
The TSE action is typically dominated by Nortel, but never more so than today with investors waging a fierce war over the stock. Currently Nortel is up about 1.3% on heavy volume of 3.8 million shares. It’s also the top trader on the NYSE today.
With the current buying in Nortel, the industrials sub-index is up and a number of technology issues are enjoying strong showings. JDS Uniphase, Research in Motion, Exfo Electro, Sierra Wireless, Tundra Semi and Ballard Power are all up nicely.
BCE is enjoying a strong day, up 4% on talk of a possible tie-up with the Thomson family to create a Canadian media powerhouse.
Joining the techs, utilities, paper plays and oil and gas are all up. On the downside are the consumer stocks, golds and conglomerates.
Among the consumer sub-index, it’s the high-flying biotechs that are leading the slide. Biotech, QLT, is down notably. It is joined by Wi-Lan, Newgrowth, Teklogix and Descartes Systems. Also sliding are techs such as Alcatel and Celestica.
Penny stocks continue to trade strongly, led by Repap, moving 12.5 million shares. Heritage Concepts, TVI Pacific and William Multi-Tech are also trading strongly.
Among the financials, the insurers are the big movers today. Sun Life is clawing back some of last week’s losses, while Manulife is sliding. The banks are mixed, with BMO and TD down, and the others up slightly.
Air Canada is sliding a little in active trading, in the wake of some poor service reviews from customers.
In market news, Precision Drilling Corp. is buying CenAlta Energy for about $200 million.
WestJet Airlines Ltd. is waving goodbye to its chief executive Steve Smith, who will be replaced by former president and CEO and current chairman Clive Beddoe. The company is citing “differences in management philosophy” for the move.
In New York stocks have had a roller coaster day, too. At midday the Dow is up 51 points to 11,272. The Nasdaq composite has dropped nine points to 3,969. The S&P 500 is up five to 1,499.
Mergers news is driving much of the action in the wake of Goldman Sachs deal for Spear, Leeds. Speculation continues to surround J.P. Morgan after its CFO Peter Hancock resigned. The technology companies are being hit following lowered earnings estimates for IBM and news of a possible huge deal involving Hewlett-Packard. HP slipped 3.3% on news of a possible US$18 billion acquisition of PriceWaterhouseCoopers consulting arm. Also Genzyme General dropped 11.1% after it announced a deal to buy GelTex Pharmaceuticals for nearly US$1 billion.
The CDNX is moving nicely today, up 19 points to 3,666. Volume is decent at 20.8 million shares. Oils are leading the way higher, followed by mines. Techs are sliding. Linmor Inc. is the top trader, up 11% to $1.55 on 1.3 million shares.