Markets closed lower Tuesday, led by a selloff in technology stocks.

The TSE 300 composite index closed down 23.56 points at 7,559.29. Market volume was relatively light at 143 million shares.

Negative comments from analysts and gloomy earnings forecasts overshadowed Amazon.com’s surprisingly strong performance in the fourth quarter.

The gloom surrounding earnings overshadowed encouraging Canadian manufacturing data, and a report by the U.S. Conference Board report that its index of leading economic indicators rose a strong 1.2% in December.

Overall, five of the TSE’s 14 sub-indices closed lower, led by a 2.2% drop in the tech-heavy industrial products sub-index.

Among today’s winners, the transportation group gained 2.3%, while metals and minerals rose 1.6%.

Nortel Networks, the session’s most active issue, slipped 32¢ to $11.58. Bombardier fell 38¢ at $14.05.

Alcan Inc. gained $1.20 to $56.80. The aluminum maker reported a loss of US$357 million, or US80¢ cents a share, compared with a profit of US$110 million, or US34¢ per share, a year earlier.

Shares of Petro-Canada shares gained 15 cents to $37.90. The oil company said its fourth quarter profit fell to $71 million, or 27¢ a share, in the quarter, down from $386 million, or $1.27 a share, a year earlier, due to lower oil and natural gas prices

Venture capital stocks closed lower Tuesday. The S&P/CDNX composite Index closed down 3.59 at 1,094.43. Trading was heavy on a volume of 41.1 million shares with 185 advances and 213 declines.

In New York, stocks ended a rough session Tuesday with losses. Blue-chips suffered moderate losses, but weakness in the semiconductor, telecommunications and software sectors dragged down the tech-heavy Nasdaq.

The Nasdaq composite fell 47.81 points, or 2.5%, to 1,l882.53. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 58.05 points to 9713.80, and the S&P 500 slipped 8.27 points to 1119.31.

The Canadian dollar regained some ground today. The loonie closed up 0.12¢ at US62.17¢.