By James Langton

(June 26 – 13:00 ET) – Markets are moving higher this morning, though in very thin trading. At midday the TSE 300 is up 142 points to 10,233. Volume has virtually disappeared with just 52.5 million shares crossing the tape this morning, about 2:1 in favour of buyers. Advancers are out ahead of decliners 7:6.

With minimal liquidity out there Nortel Networks is dominating the market even more than usual. Nortel is up more than 4% this morning, pushing the industrials up 3% and dragging the whole TSE higher.

Strength in Nortel is boosting other big name tech stockds, such as JDS Uniphase, Certicom, and Research in Motion.

Apart from Nortel the only other area of notable strength is biotechnology. These stocks are climbing on the groundbreaking news that the human genome has been entirely sequenced by a couple of competing groups. The breakthrough, which was officially announced by President Clinton this morning, is being touted as equivalent to almost every major scientific discovery this century. Biotech stocks are natural beneficiaries of this news.

The downside is rather light today, led by the mines and forest products. Integrated oils and transports are weak, too. Magna, Northstar Energy and Plains Energy are among the prominent losers. CIBC is leading the banks down. CGI Group continues to take a beating on last week’s profit warning.

The only stock hotter than Nortel today is Winspear Resources, which received a cash takeover bid from De Beers this morning. The stock is up 74%, almost to the takeout price, on 3.8 million shares.

In New York trading is also light, but positive. The DNA news is boosting biotech shares there, too. M&A news in the food business and cable industry are driving some gains. It was also announced that Webvan Group Inc. will buy rival HomeGrocer.com Inc. for about US$1.2 billion in stock. That deal, along with a bounce in Amazon is boosting Internet stocks.

At midday the Dow Jones industrial average is up 125 points to 10,529. The NASDAQ composite has gained 33 points to 3,878. The S&P 500 is up 12 points to 1,453.

The CDNX is the lone down market today, off 12 points to 3,458. Volume is comparatively strong with 20.2 million shares changing hands. While tech stocks are up and oils are flat, mines are weighing on the market. Porpoise Capital Network is leading the trading on its debut, up an incredible 1,150% to $2.50 on 2.5 million shares. The capital pool firm proposes to acquire Internet service provider Pacific Coast Net Inc.