By James Langton
(May 29 – 13:00 ET) – As expected trading on the TSE has been extremely sleepy this morning. U.S. traders are observing Memorial Day, so there’s very little market momentum. At midday, the TSE 300 is up 27 points to 9047. Volume is just 34 million shares, about a third of typical trading action. The split between advancers and decliners is almost dead even.
While no sector is moving dramatically, there is some upside momentum in media stocks, utilities, conglomerates, golds and miners. The only down groups are industrials and financials, although the slides are moderate.
On the heels of world telecom strength, BCE is up more than 2%, joined by Teleglobe. There is also strength in Seagram, Backbone Software and Biovail. Clearnet is up 4% in light trading after Merrill Lynch upgraded the stock to “buy” from “accumulate”. The downside is led by techs such as Certicom, JDS Uniphase, Research in Motion and Telco.
Among the financials, the insurers, fund companies and financial management firms are all down notably. Merrill Lynch has dropped 2%. C.I. Fund Management is off 1.2% in unusually heavy trading. Aspiring online broker Digital Gem has dropped 5¢ to 33¢ in active trading.
Small cap trading hasn’t been hit as hard by the U.S. holiday as the senior stocks. CDNX volume is average at 16.7 million, with the index down eight points to 3184. Techs are down. Miners are up slightly, but energy stocks are strong there today. FTM Investment Corp. is leading the way on the CDNX, up 260% to 36¢ on more than 2 million shares.