Toronto stocks were mixed at midday on Monday as weakness in financial issues offset strength in energy stocks. The S&P/TSX composite index was up just 8.67 points at 9,647.30.

Volume was a light 76.6 million shares.

Seven of the 10 TSX main groups were higher, led by a 1.4% rise by the energy sector and a 0.6% climb in the consumer staples index.

But a 0.5% pullback by financials and a 0.4% fall in the materials group, tempered the gains.

Crude oil topped a record US$58 a barrel in Monday morning trading in New York as OPEC oil ministers pondered production hikes.

Crude futures traded as high as US$58.28 before slipping back to US$57.61 by 12:15 ET.

On the TSX, EnCana was up $1.55, or 1.8%, at $89.07 and Nexen Inc. gained $1.52, or 2.3%, to $69.22.

However, PetroKazakhstan was off $2.41, or 4.9%, at $47.33, after it said two of its officials had been charged with violating anti-monopoly laws in the central Asian nation of Kazakhstan, home to its operations.

Financial issues weaken amid speculation that U.S. interest rates could rise rapidly.

Sun Life Financial dipped 49¢, or 1.3%, to $38.48 and Royal Bank of Canada fell 32¢, or 0.4%, to $73.53.

Among individual stocks, shares of semiconductor company Mosaid Technologies plunged 20% after a U.S court ruled that a rival had not infringed on some of Mosaid’s patents.

Mosaid stock was down $5.54 to $22.60.

A U.S. District Court in New Jersey rejected six of seven patent claims Mosaid had filed against Infineon Technologies, ruling that Infineon’s memory products did not step on Mosaid’s patents. The court did not rule on the seventh.

On Wall Street, U.S. stocks fell on as oil prices held above US$57 a barrel.


At midday, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 23.39 points, or 0.22%, at 10,380.91. The S&P 500 was down 2 points, or 0.19%, at 1,170.69. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index was down 7 points, or 0.36%, at 1,978.

Shares of Unocal fell after ChevronTexaco agreed to buy the oil company for about US$16.4 billion.

Unocal’s stock, which had surged nearly 60% since December on expectations of a takeover, fell 7% to $59.79 after news that the acquisition would be at a discount to Unocal’s closing price on Friday.