Bay Street failed to hold on to early afternoon gains Monday, falling sharply before the closing bell, while Wall Street drifted lower throughout the day in listless trading.

At close, Toronto’s S&P/TSX composite was down 25.25 points of 0.3% to 8309.04, while the TSX Venture Exchange was the only market to finish the day in the black; it closed up 3.15 points or 0.21% to 1524.30. Volume on the TSX was light – about 156.4 million shares had traded hands late in the day; about 45.6 million shares traded on the TSXV.

In New York, the Dow Joes industrial average lost 72.49 points or 0.71% to 10122.52. The Nasdaq composite index slipped 25.60 points or 1.37% to 1836.49 and the S&P 500 slid 8.62 points or 0.78% to 1099.15.

The Canadian dollar was down 0.27 of a cent to US75.83¢ in late trading.

In Toronto, most of the TSX sub-indices were down. Tech stocks lead the way lower, falling 1.99% with Celestica Inc. (down 97¢ to $19) and Sierra Wireless (down $3.93 to $26.45) among the bigger losers. Gold stocks also took in the chin, falling 1.38% despite a jump of US$4.60 to US410 in the price of gold for December delivery on the the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract lost more than US$10 last week.

Financials stocks also slipped (0.08%) with Royal Bank (off 97¢ to $59.43), Bank of Nova Scotia (down 15¢ to $36.56) and CIBC (down 17¢ to $66.30) among notable losers.

Energy stocks were unchanged as a group as oil prices continued last week’s downward. Trend. U.S. light crude futures slipped to US$41.30 a barrel before recovering slightly to US$41.86, down $1.32.

The big mover on the day was Bombardier Inc., which announced that its transportation unit has been selected by the Chinese government to negotiate a rail equipment contract worth a reported $4.5 billion. Bombardier stock closed up 27¢ to $2.99 on volume of more than 8.2 million shares.

On Wall Street, trading was extremely light —a paltry 843 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange and 988 million on the Nasdaq — as many traders seem to have opted to stay away during the U.S. Republican convention in New York. The fact it is the final summer vacation week heading into the Labor Day weekend may also account for lack of investor interest.