It has been another mixed session on the TSE today. At midday, the TSE 300 is down 15 points to 7,849.

Volume is average at 83.5 million shares, and decidedly negative, with selling outweighing buying by about seven to four.

Market breadth is much more even, with losers holding a tiny edge on winners.

Techs are weak again today, down 2% on the hardware side and 1% for software names. Biotechs are weak, too. There’s also some selling in energy stocks, pipelines and gods. Strength is coming in retail stocks, media plays, and paper stocks are bouncing back a bit, too.

Nortel Networks continues to lead the techs down, off another 5.5% today, as those stocks continue to suffer pressure on weak growth prospects. Cognos, Solectron and CGI Group are all down, each off about 2%. But there’s strength in Celestica and ATI Technologies.

Labopharm is the loser of the day, down about 41% after Aventis killed a product deal it had with the firm. Vasogen is weaker today, too.

Suncor Energy is leading the oils down, although it is off only about 0.5% in active trading.

There’s also weakness in Air Canada, Ivanhoe Mines, Rio Alto and Bell Canada International

On the upside, there’s strength in financial names including CIBC, Sun Life, Laurentian Bank and Kingsway Financial.

Retail names are gaining, led by Hudson’s Bay. There’s also some strength in BCE, Sherritt, CHC and Canfor is leading the paper group back.

In business news, Duke Energy closed its previously announced acquisition of Westcoast Energy Inc. for US$8 billion.

Canada Life Capital Trust has completed the issuance of $450 million of Canada Life Capital Securities. The net proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes. The lead underwriters for the CLiCS offering were Merrill Lynch Canada Inc.

Finally, Royal Laser Tech Corporation reports that it has appointed Erich Genseberger as its chief operating officer. Genseberger, 41, was a senior executive at Cosma International, the metal forming subsidiary of Magna International.

In New York, a choppy trading session is allowing some modest gains at midday. The Dow Jones industrial average is up 41 points to 10,542. The Nasdaq composite index has added 10 ticks to 1,871. The S&P 500 is up three points to 1157.

The small caps are weaker today, with the S&P/CDNX Composite Index down five points to 1,148. Volume is average at 18 million shares. Hydromet Environmental is the top trader, down 14% to 6¢ on volume of 845,000 shares.