Toronto stocks closed slightly lower on Monday to extend the market’s losing skid to four sessions. The S&P/TSX composite index shed 8.63 points, or 0.09%, to 9,078.20.

Volume was relatively light at 215 million shares, as investors were looking ahead to the flow of domestic earnings reports due later this week, and to tomorrow’s interest rate announcement from the Bank of Canada.

Canada’s central bank is expected to leave interest rates unchanged. The overnight rate currently stands at
2.50%.

The information technology group sagged 1.7% to lead all declining sectors, while the telecoms groups fell 0.88%. Six of the 10 main TSX subindexes closed lower.

The technology sector buckled to its lowest closing level since early September as an investment newsletter recommended short selling shares of Research In Motion , the group’s second-biggest stock.

Shares of RIM, maker of the BlackBerry e-mail device, dropped $4.75, or 5.5%, to $81.00, while telecoms equipment maker Nortel Networks eased 4¢, or 1%, to $3.81.

Royal Group Technologies Ltd. pressured the industrials group to a 0.68% loss after saying it expects to report a quarterly loss because of high raw-material and legal costs.

Royal Group shares sank $1.29, or 10%, to $11.35.

Energy stocks were one bright spot with a 0.7% gain as a weekend blizzard across eastern North America strained heating oil stocks and kept crude prices near US$49 a barrel.

EnCana Corp. rose 91¢, or 1.3%, to $70.82, while Petro-Canada gained $1.12, or 1.8%, to$63.20.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index fell 2.23 points, or 0.12%, to 1,806.80.

On Wall Street, U.S. stocks fell to fresh year lows. The Dow Jones industrial average was down 24.38 points, or 0.23%, to finish at 10,368.61. The 500 was down 4.12 points, or 0.35%, to end at 1,163.75. The Nasdaq composite index was down 25.57 points, or 1.26%, to close at 2,008.70.

The Nasdaq, the Dow and the S&P 500 all ended lower for the fourth consecutive session. The Nasdaq closed at its lowest level since Nov. 3, the Dow since Nov. 4 and the S&P 500 since Nov. 10.