By Stewart Lewis

(June 20 – 12:30 ET) – The Toronto Stock Exchange 300 composite index is getting a boost from the tech sector this morning. At midday it’s up 116.79 to 10,253.60.

Five of the TSE 300’s sub-indices are higher. BCE is up 65¢ to $36.55. 724 Solutions has added $6.95, climbing to $75.85. The big tech story this morning has been Ballard Power which has jumped $8.75 to $128.75.

Seagram stock, on the other hand, is taking a beating following the company’s announcement that it’s being taken over by Vivendi SA. It dropped 5% this morning, down to $88, and pulled communications and media down with it. Seagram dropped on the Dow Jones industrial average, too, down 4-3/16, or 6.5%, to 59-13/16.

The result on the TSE 300 was that declining issues outnumbered advaancing issues this morning 409 to 365.

South of the border the NASDAQ composite broke the 4,000 mark, as investors returned to technology shares. By late morning the NASDAQ was up 52.10 to 4,041.90.

It’s a down day, so far, for the Dow Jones industrial average. It dropped 52 points early Tuesday, to 10,506.

In economic news, the U.S. trade gap narrowed a little in April, shrinking for the first time in four months. It fell in April to $30.44 billion, says the U.S. Commerce Department. Meanwhile, the current account deficit, the broadest gauge of the nation’s international trade picture, widened to a record $102.30 billion in the first quarter of 2000.