By James Langton

(April 27 – 13:00 ET) – Markets are having another lazy day, today. After an positive opening, markets sold off into negative territory, then rebounded again.

At midday the Toronto Stock Exchange was more or less unchanged, with the TSE 300 composite index down just two points to7958. Volume has been strong — 82 million shares, with buyers holding a 3:2 edge over sellers. Market breadth has been much more neutral, however, as advancers have had a slight edge on decliners.

The TSE’s 14 sectors are evenly split between winners and losers. Nothing is up as much as 1%, and nothing is down that much either. Pipelines and merchandisers are weakest. Gold and consumer stocks are strongest, but their gains have been inconsequential.

Nortel Networks is back in its familiar spot as the top trader on the TSE. It’s down another 1.7% on more than 4 million shares. There’s talk that Nortel’s French rival, Alcatel, is bidding about US$5.0 billion to buy Lucent’s fibre optic division, after the firms decided against a full-scale merger. Other possible bidders include Corning, Pirelli and JDS Uniphase. JDS is up about 5% on the day.

Joining Nortel on the downside is an eclectic mix of stocks today, betraying the lack of any broad sector moves. Losers include 724 Solutions, Anormed, Centrefund Realty, TVX Gold, Industrial-Alliance Life, Tesma and Intertape Polymer.

Buyers are taking a shine to beaten up names such as 360networks, CanWest Global, Denison Mines, and Sherritt. Other winners on the day include Biomira, Trican Well Service, Royal Group Technologies, Premdor and CHC Helicopter.

In earnings news, Investors Group Inc. reported its first quarter profit rose 17.6% to 30.4¢ per share, compared with 25.8¢ in the period a year ago. The quarter missed analyst estimates by a hair, with 31¢ expected.

TransCanada PipeLines Ltd. has reported about a 17% profit increase. It had profits of $116 million in the period, about 35¢ per share, up from 30¢ in the period a year ago.

The CDNX is down again today. At midday, it was off seven points to 3019. Volume is average at 16 million shares. Techs are the weak spot again today, with some gains in miners and oils. Brasilca Mining Corp is the top trader, up 15% to 23¢ on volume of 673,000 shares.

In New York, markets opened to the upside after GDP numbers surprised analysts to the
upside, and traders have moved little off those early gains. By midday, the Dow Jones industrials index climbed 56 points to 10749. The NASDAQ compsosite index gained 21 points to 2056. The S&P added nine points to 1243.