By James Langton

(March 23 – 13:10 ET) – Choppy morning trading has left the Toronto Stock exchange more or less unchanged by midday. The TSE 300 composite index is down eight points to 7658. Volume has been a little soft, at 66.1 million shares, with buyers holding an 8:7 edge over sellers. The winners outnumber the losers about 5:4.

On a sector-by-sector basis the action is pretty evenly split today, too. Miners, paper stocks and pipelines are the weakest groups. There’s strength in consumer products, media stocks and utilities. But overall, sector moves, both up and down, are rather moderate. Buyers appear cautious. It remains to be seen how the market closes going into the weekend.

Nortel Networks is the top trader of the day, taking down the tech hardware group with a 2.6% slide on strong volume of 6.9 million shares. News that Motorola is cutting another 4,000 jobs is hurting the mood in this group today. Also, rival Cisco Systems was downgraded by SG Cowen this morning.

Inco is down 7% in heavy trading on news that it will issue US$200 million in new debt. Also sliding are Encal Energy, Bombardier, Canwest Global, SMTC, Teknion, and JDS Uniphase.

On the upside, tech bargain hunting is a feature of the market again today. C-MAC and Celestica are up on heavy volume, joined by gains in Pivotal Corp., Open Text, Mitel, Sierra Wireless and GSI Lumonics. Gulf Canada is bouncing today too.

Financials are also bouncing back a little. Sun Life is leading the insurers today, up 1% on 1.5 million shares. Royal Bank is the most active bank on the upside too, leading all the banks higher. The fund companies are getting a rougher ride, most are heading down, led by Guardian.

In the U.S., the action has been volatile too. At midday, the Dow is up 35 points to 9425. Nasdaq has gained 21 points to 1918. The S&P is up 11 points to 1129. Financials, health stocks and techs are leading the way higher.

The CDNX is nearly unchanged at midday, up almost one point to 2963. Volume is average at 17.4 million shares. All its groups are up, led by techs. The top trader is Tropika International Ltd, gaining 17% to 7¢ per share on 1.66 million shares.