Stocks are taking a thumping today, as traders take profits in tech and energy shares. This morning’s economic news was second tier stuff, but it was mostly positive with Canadian manufacturers indicating muted optimism about their sector’s prospects.

However, traders are taking some money off the table today. The S&P/TSX index has dropped 79 points to 8,582.

Volume is on the soft side at 152.3 million shares, with selling swamping the buying by a five to two margin. Market breadth is also convincingly bearish, as losers outnumber winners by a 66:45 score.

There’s a bit of a flight to quality move in the market, as gold is the only sector that’s higher at midday. It is up just 0.5%.

Against this, techs are down 2.4%, energy stocks have dropped 1.8%, and there is also weakness in miners, industrials and telecoms.

Nortel is leading the way out of tech stocks today. It has dropped 3% in heavy trading of 29.6 million shares. ATI is down more than 4%, and there is weakness in Zarlink Semiconductor and Mitec Telecom.

BCE is also weak today,dropping 1.7% on news that its fourth quarter profit slipped to $400 million, down sharply from a year ago. For the year, BCE reported earnings per share of $1.90, down from $2.66 a year ago.

Nexen is leading the energy group lower, dropping 6.7%, after it lowered its estimates of its proven reserves. It is joined by notable weakness in EnCana, Canadian Natural Resources, and Talisman Energy. However, there is a bit of strength in sector names such as Ivanhoe Energy and Southwestern Resources.

Financials stocks are being led lower by Bank of Montreal today. It is down 2% after announcing that it is buying Chicago’s New Lenox State Bank for US$228.5 million. CIBC is 1.6% lower on news that one of its’ former employees has been charged in the U.S. fund trading scandals. Manulife and Royal Bank are down, too.

There is also some notable selling in big names such as Inco, down 3.8%, Bombardier is down 1.8%, and Alcan has dropped less than 1%. Other losers include Jaguar Nickel, Decoma, Westaim and Creo.

The few gainers today include certain biotechs, with stocks such as Aeterna, Ecopia Biosciences, ConjuChem and Cardiome Pharma all higher. Isotechnika, CoolBrands, Teck and Norske Skog are all making gains.

In earnings news, Newmont Mining experienced fourth quarter net income of $153.1 million, up from $75.1 million or the fourth quarter of 2002. Newmont earned net income of $475.7 million for 2003, up from $154.3 million for 2002.

St. Lawrence Cement released fourth quarter net earnings of $21.8 million, compared with last year’s net earnings of $24.9 million. For the full year, net earnings are $65.4 million, compared with $85.3 million last year.

Gildan Activewear reported net earnings of US$2.9 million, compared with US$3.7 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2003.

Cossette Communication Group recorded net earnings of $3.5 million, compared with $2.9 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2003.

In other news, Agnico-Eagle Mines has disclosed that a contract miner was killed as a result of an explosion at the company’s LaRonde mine in northwestern Quebec. Underground mine production has temporarily been scaled back to 5,000 tons per day pending an inspection by local authorities.

In New York, stocks have gyrated around all day, leaving the markets little moved. Currently, the Dow Jones industrial average is down four points to 10,501. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index is convincingly weak though, as traders take profits It’s off 30 points to 2,037.

The S&P/TSX Venture index is seven ticks lower at 1,782. Volume is average at 36 million shares. nStein Technologies inc. is the day’s top trader, up 9¢ to 44¢ on 1.2 million shares.