By James Langton

(April 4 – 13:00 ET) – Markets are falling on their swords. The TSE 300 is getting bloodied today. At midday it is down 557 points, or 6%, to 8,817. Volume is active at 98.5 million shares, more than 2:1 in favour of the sellers. Declines are outpacing advances 13:6.

Plenty of stocks are being killed in the sell-off, but high-priced tech stocks are the main target. Nortel Networks and BCE Inc. are responsible for about 300 points of the loss alone. They’re down around 11%.

All the highly valued tech stocks aren’t far behind. Cell-Loc, Certicom, Research in Motion, Wi-Lan, MDSI Mobile and Descartes Systems are all down more than 20%. Infowave Software Sierra Wireless, Xenos and GT Telecom aren’t far behind. TD Waterhouse has lost about 17%.

Industrials and utilities are down about 9% each. Substantial slides are evident across the board, with media stocks, conglomerates, consumers and energy stocks each losing about 2.5%. Financials are off 1.5%. Only paper stocks have kept their heads above water, up only about 0.1% however.

Amidst all the bloodletting though, there are odd winners. Perle Systems and Corel are both up on enthusiasm for Linux in the wake of the Microsoft decision. Quebecor has gained more than 10% on news of a plan to buy back shares and shed some debt. Odd stocks such as Franco-Nevada, St Laurent Paper and Bombardier are seeing some buying, too.

All this selling comes on the heels of a continued selloff on the Nasdaq in the U.S. The tech index is down another 292 points, below 4000 to 3931, and falling fast. At this point the Nasdaq is more than 20% off its all-time high and officially meeting the definition of a bear market. The Dow is mostly resisting the selling, down just 41 points to 11,180. The S&P is down 29 points to 1476.

The CDNX is joining the selloff in a big way today. At noon it is down 293 points to 3953, about a 7% drop. Volume is relatively light at just 31 million shares. The miners and energy stocks are down too, but the tech stocks are off more than 12%. Organic Earth Corp. is the leading trader, up 110% to 42¢ on 1.7 million shares.