Nortel, financials spell relief for TSE

After its sharp drop yesterday, Nortel Networks bounced back a bit today as investors seemed ready to gamble on a bargain. It closed up $5.35 at $94.05 on heavy volume of 12 million shares.

Total volume today was only 130 million shares traded, though, as many investors seem to be sitting out the volatility. There was a slight downward trend among individual issues, though, as 586 issues declined while only 487 advanced.

The gold sector, which saw some action yesterday from frantic investors looking for a safe harbour gave up its gains by dropping 2.18% today. It had gained 3% yesterday.

Overall eight of 14 TSE sub-indices finished the day up. Large movers were industrial preducts, up 3.72% and communications, up 1.45%.

There was a lot of movement within the financials today. Royal Bank ended down 1.43 %, while TD and Manulife were up 2.05% and 2.92% respectively. The bank of Nova Scotia was up 2.26% on the day. Overall, the sector finished up 0.78%.

News that Eicon Technology may be sold to i-data sent the Montreal-based Internet company up 44.83% on the day.

The CDNX closed up 9.68 points at 3,545.38 on a volume of 35.4 million shares. The market was pretty well split, with 275 issues advancing and 274 declining.

News of an impending election is having some effect on the Canadian dollar, which opened lower this morning and closed down at US66.64¢ at the end of the session. Technical trading once the loonie started dropping sent it down farther. It closed at 67.84¢ U.S. yesterday.

In the U.S., the Dow Jones industrial average closed up 195.7 points at 10,824.06 while the Nasdaq composite finished 121.84 points higher at 3778.14. The S&P 500 finished the day at 1458.29, up 31.72 points. But today’s rally could come to an abrupt end tomorrow.
After today’s close, Apple warned that its third quarter earnings will be sharply lower.