By James Langton

(February 2 – 13:00 ET) – Traders are wandering aimlessly again, today. There’s no compelling reason to buy. As a result, the Toronto Stock Exchange 300 composite index is up just seven points at midday, to 9295. Volume is average at about 85 million shares, almost 5:3 in favour of buyers. The winners are slightly outnumbering the losers.

The sector split is even, too, with industrials leading the way down. There’s strong upside in financials and miners, with some help from energy and paper.

All this old economy strength is just enough to allow the TSE to fight Nortel Networks to a draw. Nortel is down about 3%, weighing on the index. Profit concerns among the techworld are dominating the trade there. Volume isn’t great in Nortel at 3.3 million shares. Joining it on the downside are tech titans, such as Alcatel, JDS Uniphase, Janna, Celestica, Exfo Electro, and Ballard Power.

Countering this drop, Royal Bank is powering the financials higher. RBC is up almost 4% today in heavy trading. The interest rate scenario seems to be driving the trade, which is powering all the banks higher by about 3%. The insurers are up modestly. The fund companies are mixed.

Other winners include old economy stalwarts such as GM, Burlington Resources, Magna, Larfarge Canada and Abitibi.

In business news, TransCanada PipeLines Ltd. says it has proposed $160 million sale of its Cancarb Ltd. carbon black manufacturing facility is being delayed after the buyer, Sid Richardson Carbon Co., failed to live up to its side of the deal. TCPL says it is considering its business options and legal remedies.

In other news, C.I. Fund Management Inc. is reporting net sales of $235 million in January, up 12% from December.

In New York the action is similarly sluggish. The Dow Jones industrial index is off 55 points at midday to 10929. The NASDAQ composite index is down 73 points to 2710. The S&P is down 15 points to 1359.

In the U.S., energy and utilities are up after California’s emergency power bill was passed last night. Semiconductors are falling south after National Semiconductor issued an earnings warning. U.S. financials are up too, with American Express leading the way.

The CDNX is stuck today, too. At midday it is virtually unchanged for the day at 3287. Volume is heavy at 24.4 million shares. Techs are down, miners and oils are up a little Justinian Explorations Ltd is top tech trader, flat at 3¢ on almost 1.9 million shares.