By James Langton
(July 4 – 13:00 ET) – Markets are predictably thin and uneventful today. At midday the TSE 300 is up 91 points to 10,286. Volume is almost non-existent though at a mere 29 million shares, split about 3:2 in favour of buyers. Advancers are outpacing decliners 9:8.
In such a thin market it can be dangerous to give much weight to prices, nevertheless technology, utilities, mines and media stocks are leading the way higher. Tobacco and biotechs are weakening the consumer sector. The promise of Saudi Arabia’s increased oil production is also hitting the energy sector, both producers and service stocks are down.
Little-known Nelson Gold Corp. is the leading trader, moving 2 million shares. It’s down 2¢ to 13¢, highlighting the sort of action evident on the TSE today.
Nortel Networks remains the most influential stock, despite trading less than 1 million shares so far. It is up 1.5%. Techs such as JDS Uniphase, Research in Motion, ATI Technologies, Certicom and Wi-Lan are all up. BCE has gained more than 2%, too.
On the downside, some of last week’s big winners are being hit by profit-taking. Biotechs such as QLT Phototherapeutics are down. Hot IPO, Exfo Electro-Optical is off 12%. News is sparse, though.
The small caps are being just as ignored today. The CDNX is up 10 points to 3,469 on volume of just 9.9 million shares. Mines and techs are leading the way. Benz Energy Inc. is the biggest trader, unchanged with 800,000 shares changing hands.