By James Langton
(May 3 – 13:00 ET) – Toronto traders’ on-again, off-again love affair with tech stocks is off-again today, knocking the TSE 300 composite index back by 145 points to 9365. Volume is average at 88.3 million shares, about 11:9 in favour of sellers. Declines are ahead of advances almost 5:4.
The techs are leading the way down, joined by software and biotechs. Just about every sector is down except for the energy plays. Even gold is sliding as Swiss central bank sales bite.
Nortel Networks and BCE are leading the trading in their new forms. Nortel is off more than 5% on 5.8 million shares. It is the most active stock on the street. BCE is down 5.4% on 4.8 million shares. Popular techs, 724 Solutions, Research in Motion, Certicom, Ballard Power and Tundra Semiconductor are all high among the losers.
Transport firm Laidlaw continues to slide toward oblivion, down 15% to 91¢ on 2.7 million shares.
The energy plays are seeing some real strength despite the general selloff. Gulf Canada is the hottest trader, up 5.5% on 1.3 million shares. But strong gains are evident at Talisman, Canadian Hunter, Imperial Oil, Alberta Energy and Nova.
In New York doom and gloom s the order of the day, too. The Dow Jones industrial average is off more than 200 points at midday to 10525, and the selling is accelerating. NASDAQ is down 109 points to 3677. The S&P is off 25 points to 1421.
Small caps aren’t escaping the selling either. The CDNX is off 55 points to 3543. Volume is weak at 15.7 million shares. Techs are leading the selling, off 2.7%. Miners are down, too, and energy stocks are showing a little resistance. Pamlico Resources Ltd. is the hottest trade, up 82% to 20¢ on 570,000 shares.