By James Langton
(April 18 – 13:00 ET) – Bargain hunters are piling back into tech stocks, driving markets higher again. The TSE 300 composite index is up 176 points at midday to 8,945. Volume is relatively light at just 73 million shares and overwhelmingly positive, more than 3:1 in favour of buyers. Advances are outpacing declines 11:9.
The tech buying is about as aggressive as the selling was last week. Industrials and utilities are up about 3.5% so far, and consumer products have added 4.4%. Software stocks are up an incredible 8.4% this morning, followed closely by the engineering stocks and biotechs. Media stocks are strong too as the battle for Videotron heats up.
Beaten-down plays such as Research in Motion, Certicom, Sierra Wireless and BCE Emergis are attracting lots of buyers this morning. Ballard Power has gained 13% today. Market heavyweights Nortel Networks and BCE are up strongly, too.
Golds continue to slump as investors leave their safety and dive back into the shark-infested tech waters. Pipelines are the only other group down notably. CNR, Bowater and Burlington Resources are all sagging noticeably.
In the U.S. there’s no split between new and old, everything’s up. The Dow Jones industrial average has added 140 points to 10722. NASDAQ has gained 178 points to 3717. The Standard & Poor’s is up 22 points to 1423.
Small caps are joining the fun again today, too. The Canadian Venture Exchange has gained 175 points to 3,595 on very light volume of just 20 million shares. Tech stocks are off to the races, up 12%. Small advances are evident in the oils and miners too. Unique Broadband is hot this morning, up 25% to $6.00 on 1.2 million shares.