By Jeff Sanford

(October 11 – 17:45 ET) – The TSE 300 opened well below yesterday’s close and remained in negative territory throughout the day to close at 10,145.00, a loss of 249.83 points.

The composite index flirted with the 10,000 mark, trading as low as 10,039.34 during the day. The decline was marketwide. Nine of the 14 groups were down.

Leading the way down were golds and industrials, both groups down over 3%. The real estate, merchandising and financial groups were down over 2%, while the paper and utilities sectors were down 1%. Metals declined 0.76%.

On the upside, oil and gas and consumer products advanced more than 1%.

Advancing issues were massively outnumbered by declining issues. Some 726 stocks declined compared to the 371 that advanced. Total volume was relatively heavy with 162 million shares trading.

The good news was confined to oil and gas. Gulf Canada was the most heavily traded stock today with almost 11 million shares trading. It closed up 4.23% at $7.40.

Crestar was up 3.54%. As was Canadian Occidental, up 3.07%. Canadian 88 Energy though was down 5.71%.

Nortel Networks was also heavily traded, with some 10 million shares moving. It dragged the industrial products group — and the rest of the TSE — down with a $4.30 loss. It’s now trading at $91.95.

The selloff hit most of the tech issues. Research in Motion was down heavily, dropping 6.19%. JDS Uniphase was down 4.70%. Geac computers was down 10.40%. Com Dev was down 12.18%, though Plaintree was up 7.34%.

Losses were also steep in financial services. TD and CIBC were both down 4.52%, while Sun Life dropped 3.51%. The Bank of Nova Scotia was down 4.02%.

The consumer products sector was up on the strength of QLT, which rose 8.95%.

The CDNX also closed down. It was off 56.38 points at 3,357.19, on volume of 40.7 million shares. Overall 419 issues declined which only 215 advanced.

The loonie finished the day down slightly at US66.52¢ U.S., compared to yesterday’s close of US66.68¢.

The story was similar south of the border. All major U.S. markets closed lower as tech stocks had one of their worst days ever.

The Nasdaq composite ended up 4 points off its 12-month low at 3,168.40, down 72.14 points. The earnings warnings from Apple, Dell and now Lucent are taking their toll as earnings continue to be the dominant factor in the market.

The Dow also ended the day down. It was off 110.61 points at 10,413.79, while the S&P 500 was down 22.43 points to finish at 1,364.59.