With little economic or corporate news to go on, markets are more or less unchanged at midday. The S&P/TSX composite index is down just a single point to 7,718.

Despite the lack of price action, the volume is decent at 147 million shares, with the buying ahead of the selling by a margin of 45:24. Market breadth is also bullish, with winners outnumbering losers 19:17.

On a sector basis, markets are rather split. News that Canadian industrial product prices surprised on the upside is helping rally old economy sectors such as diversified miners, materials and golds. Stronger gold prices are certainly helping, too. Techs and telecom stocks are also higher.

There is weakness, however, in utilities, trusts, consumer stocks and financials.

Barrick is leading the gold group higher, up 0.7%. But there are bigger gains in smaller names, notably Kinross, which is up 2.4%. There is also strength in Golden Star Resources, Eldorado Gold, Gammon Lake Resources, Wolfden Resources and Claude Resources. Only Bema Gold is down.

Also in the gold group, Newmont Mining reported third quarter net income of $114.4 million, up sharply from the net income of $20.8 million for the third quarter of 2002.

Nortel is leading the way higher for techs today, up 1.4% in robust trading.

BCE is powering the telecoms higher, up 0.5% on news that its third quarter profit is up 27%, thanks largely to buying back its Bell Canada unit. Telesystem Wireless is up 5.5% in active trading, too. Although, recent gainers such as Certicom and Bakbone Software, are down at midday.

In the biotech space, Angiotech is notably stronger, but Biovail is down.

Inco is up impressively today. Another big winner is the TSX itself, which has romped ahead 7% on news that it is paying out its cash hoard in a $5 special dividend.

Other capital markets players aren’t doing so well. Manulife Financial, CIBC, Scotiabank and Royal Bank are all sliding modestly in active trading.

There is also weakness in EnCana, CP Ships, TransCanada, Shell Canada, Norske Skog, and SouthernEra Resources.

In other earnings news, Ballard Power Systems’ net loss for the quarter was $31.1 million, compared with a loss of $40.2 million for the same period in 2002. Included in the net loss for the quarter was $2.7 million in restructuring costs, compared with $3.0 million for the corresponding period of 2002.

Gerdau Ameristeel recorded a net loss of $8.7 million, compared with net income of $2.5 million for the third quarter of 2002.

Algoma Steel reported a quarterly net loss of $13.6 million. This compares with net income of $28.6 million for the quarter in 2002.

Dorel Industries’ third quarter net income was US$18.8 million. Cardiome Pharma recorded a loss of $4.7 million, compared with a loss of $3.1 million for the same period in 2002. And, Uni-Select saw its net earnings increase to $6,543,000, compared with $5,856,000 in the previous year.

In New York, stocks have also traded in a pretty tight range. The Dow Jones industrial average is down eight points at midday to 9l740. The Nasdaq composite has dropped six ticks to 1,926. The S&P 500 is flat at 1047.

The S&P/TSX Venture composite index is the strongest market guage, gaining 20 points to 1,518. Volume is heavy too at 51.1 million shares. Talware Networx is the top trader, flat with 3.1 million shares changing hands.