By Jeff Sanford

(December 21 – 18:15 ET) – Stocks on the TSE opened lower this morning after yesterday’s carnage, but climbed ahead mid-morning. They couldn’t hold on to the gains, however, and the TSE 300 lost 42.85 points to close at 8,700.55.

Among the sub-indices, golds and industrials led the way down. Pipelines and real estate also finished quite a bit lower. On the upside, the metals and minerals and financial services gained on the day.

Overall, five of the 14 sub-indices gained, eight lost and one finished the session unchanged.

Among individual issues 618 declined on the day while 550 advanced — 253 remained unchanged. Volume was a respectable 127 million shares.

Nortel was the most heavily traded issue of the day, at10 million shares. Nevertheless, it shed 55¢ to close at $47.25.

Even though Research In Motion released excellent earnings this week, traders continued to dump it today. RIM dropped 12.56% to $99.90.

JDS lost 5.98% to close at $68.40 and ATI Tech finished off 5.70% at $9.10. Descartes Systems was also off heavily. It dropped 10% to close at $31.05.

Other big moves were Shell Canada, up 4.70% to $38.35 and Gulf Canada ahead 4.48% at $7.

The big banks and insurance companies finished up nicely today. Penny stocks were active today as well.

The CDNX had a busy day. Over 68 million shares changed hands. Market players were in selling mood today and the index slipped 11.87 to 2,692.83. Overall, 414 issues declined and 304 advanced.

The loonie gained ground today, advancing 0.11% to close at US65.79¢.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average bounced back from yesterday’s selloff, jumping 168.36 poits. It closed at 10,487.29.

The Nasdaq composite pulled out of its seven day losing streak, though, it didn’t actually recover. It gained a paltry 7.34 points to close 2,340.12. The S&P 500 added 10.12 points to finish the session at 1,274.86.