By Gavin Adamson

(April 12 – 17:30 ET) – Canadian tech stock Research In Motion deflated by nearly 50% today, leading North American markets down further. The Toronto-based pager company had its rating dropped by several brokerages buy lists after analysts lowered its earnings projections. The tech company then dropped $52.65 to $68.

RIM stock led volume on the Toronto Stock Exchange, which staggered backwards to 9,047.70 points, down 310.33. But North American investors backed out of a many other tech stocks including Nortel, which lost C$18.05 to $152. Its parent company, BCE consequently slipped $14.65 to $156. JDS Uniphase was off by C$8.50 to $140.50, and Certicom plummetted $46.05 to $94.

The techs’ losses were the financials’ gains. The Royal Bank added C$3.30 to $75.45. The Bank of Montreal finished up $2.05, and Toronto-Dominion Bank edged up by $1.10 to $36.90. There were another couple of notable jumps: Canadian National Railway, gained $1.85 to $43.10, and Anderson Exploration added $1.20 to $23.60.

The tech portion of the CDNX lost 10%, leading the index down by 241.94 points to 3,783.73. Unique Broadband Systems blew off another 20% to $5.35. Ecompark, traded down to $1.90, off 10%.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was dragged mostly by Hewlett Packard, Intel and IBM, closing at 11,125.13 points, down 161.95. Sixteen of 30 stocks fell on the index. The Nasdaq lost more than 7%, or 286.26 points, to 3,769.64. A Goldman Sachs analyst is predicting Microsoft’s earnings won’t meet expectations due to slow sales, and that dragged down the whole software and personal computer sector. Cisco and Sun Microsystems followed. RIM is also listed on the Nasdaq.

The S&P saw 29 of its 500 drop, but the techs plummeted — leaving the index off
by 33.40 points to 1,467.19.