The TSE 300 is down 33 points to 7597 at midday. Volume is on the light side at 79.4 million shares, with selling edging the buying by a margin of 31:28. Market breadth is more negative, as losers outnumber winners by five to four.

The declines are broad-based and modest for the most part. The biotechs are taking a beating, as traders give them the tech-stock-sell-off treatment. The health care sector is down about 6%. There’s also selling among consumer stocks, energy, industrials, techs and real estate. There’s some strength in financials and miners. But most groups aren’t moving too much in any one direction.

Biovail is taking the brunt today. It’s down about 20% in active trading. There’s no news from the company today, although, last week, traders besieged the stock amidst suggestions that it reported record earnings after some favourable accounting moves. Angiotech is down 5% too.

While the biotechs are the big losers today, there’s also weakness in tech names such as JDS Uniphase, Vector Aerospace and CGI Group. Against this trend, ATI Technologies, ALI Technologies and Telus are looking stronger.

Market bellwether, BCE, is down 0.7% in active trading today, after the company was hit with a $250 million class action suit over its treatment of Bell Canada International debenture holders.

Other losers include Olympia Energy, Meota Resources, Methanex, Nexen and
Forzani.

Nova Chemicals is down 3.6%, despite its efforts to defend itself against a ratings downgrade. Nova confirmed that Moody’s is reviewing its investment grade credit rating for a possible downgrade. “It is hard for me to understand the timing of Moody’s announcement to review our ability to reduce debt through asset sales and cash flow from operations,” said Jeff Lipton, Nova president and CEO. “We clearly addressed those concerns in our first quarter press release.” Lipton says, a ratings downgrade from Moody’s, although disappointing, would have little effect on the company’s
ability to conduct its business.

On the upside, financials are stronger, led by the banks. CIBC is up 0.7% in active trading. Scotia is flat. Sun Life and Royal Bank are supporting the rally with strong gains of their own too. Other gainers include Inco, Echo Bay Mines, Trizec Canada and Parkland Industries.

The Canadian small cap S&P/CDNX index is unchanged at midday, sitting steady at 1167. Volume is average at 17.3 million shares. Uruguay Mineral Exploration is the top trader, up 15% to $1.15 on volume of 674,000 shares.

In the U.S., the indexes are mixed at midday. The Dow Jones industrial average is
currently up nine points to 9920. The S&P is off by a point to 1075. The NASDAQ composite index is up five points to 1669.

In business news, Atlantis has signed a letter of intent to sell Denbridge Digital, Ltd., its
intelligent traffic systems division, to Connectivity Inc. for US$1.8 million.