By Jeff Sanford

(August 11 – 17:30 ET) – The TSE had a roller coaster ride today, starting the day in the red, moving into the black through midday, but finishing with a loss. The 300 composite index closed at 10,788.80, a decline of 7.69 points. Total volume on the day was relatively light at 120 million shares traded.

The Nortel effect was evident today as the decline came even though 609 issues advanced and only 472 declined. Nortel lost $2.60 today to close at $113.25, and it dragged the rest of the index down with it.

The Nortel loss brought the industrial product sub-index, down 1.5%. Pipelines was the only other group down on the day as 11 of 14 sub-indices finished the day up. Financial services, consumer products and conglomerates led the way up.

In individual stocks, Heritage Concepts was again the most heavily traded stock of the day with18 million shares trading hands. It closed up another 14% today.

Some slight profit taking in Bombardier saw the stock fall 15¢ to $24.75. That’s after a nice run up in its price on the heels of its acquisition of DaimlerChryslers rail unit.

Profit takers also knocked a few cents off Mitel, which dropped 70¢ today to close at a straight $30 after a big run up yesterday.

Shares in Videotron crept up 50¢ to close at $41.85 as arbitragers push the stock closer to Qubecor’s offer of $45 a share.

The CDNX closed down slightly, it lost 1.42 points to close at 3,340.

The loonie closed at US67.42¢ today. That’s down slightly compared to its close yesterday of US67.46¢. Traders blamed the decline on the strong U.S. retail sales numbers, prompting concern the Fed may tighten interest rates at its next meeting.

In the U.S., the Dow breached the 11,000 barrier again. The last time it was above the largely psychological benchmark was April 26. Friendly inflation data had investors in a good mood today.

The Dow ended up 119.04 points to close at 11,027.80. A positive Goldman Sachs report on Philip Morris, which realized a 10.7% gain on the day, helped push the index up.

The Nasdaq composite managed to scrape out a slight gain, rising 16 points to close at 3,778. That gain came even though tech stocks had a weak day, led by selling in Dell. Although the PC make reported better than expected earnings yesterday, analysts fear its sales may slow over the near term.

The S&P 500 edged up 0.8% on the day to close at 1471.84.