By James Langton

(May 10 – 13:00 ET) – Markets are taking yet another beating at the hands of the tech stocks. The high-priced techs are falling back to earth and bringing the rest of the Toronto Stock Exchange with them.

At midday the TSE 300 composite index is down 273 points to 9021. Volume has been strong at 89.7 million shares. Selling is edging buying at this point, although declines outnumber advances 12 to 7. Tech stocks, both hardware and software, are off about 7%. Other pricey groups are down, too. Biotechs are off more than 4% and the utilities have dumped 3.5%.

Takeover target Trimark Financial continues to trade strongly in the face of its recent deal, up just 10¢ to $24.70 on 1.8 million shares. Takeover rumour target Mackenzie Financial has gained 2.2% on 1.6 million shares.

As usual Nortel Networks is leading the way. It is off more than 7% on huge volumes of 5.8 million shares. The tech sector is getting crushed after Cisco Systems reported disappointing earnings and then suggested that parts supply constraints could hurt it in the future. Rivals Nortel and Lucent are taking a beating.

Joining Nortel on the backslide are JDS Uniphase, dropping 6%, Certicom down 13%, Sierra Wireless off 12%, Descartes Systems down 11% and 724 Solutions has dumped 10%.

In the face of the tech sell-off a few of the old groups are moving up. The miners, golds and paper stocks are all strong at midday. With the International Paper-Champion deal sparking interest in the paper stocks, big players Bowater and Weyerhaeuser are leading the way up. Inco, Alcan, Suncor Energy, Canadian Tire and Weston’s are all strong. But they are no match for the mighty Nortel.

In the U.S., stocks are sliding across the board. The Dow Jones industrial average has dropped 128 points to 10408. NASDAQ has slipped 195 points to 3389. The S&P is off 27 points to 1385.
The small caps are taking hits, too.

The CDNX index is off 107 points to 3342 on 17.5 million shares. Techs are leading the way down, off 5.5%. Miners and oils are sliding, too. International Wayside Gold is the leading trader, up 15% to $1.65 on 732,980 shares.