With U.S. markets closed for Independence Day, it’s a listless trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange. At midday the S&P/TSX composite index has dropped three ticks to sit at 6,996.

Volume is paltry 43.4 million shares, less than half what you’d expect to see on an average day. Buying volume is about triple the selling. However, market breadth favours the bulls, with winners outnumbering losers 43:37.

The lack of trading action, coupled with no news, means that there is very little movement among the TSX sectors. Golds are up a bit. Consumer stocks have dropped a little, but there isn’t much movement in either direction.

Air Canada is the day’s top trader, gaining 10% on heavy volume of 5.5 million shares, on the expectation that the airline will live to irritate passengers another day.

Eldorado Gold continues to power the gold sector. It’s up another 0.8% in strong trading. There are also gains in Placer Dome and Bema Gold.

The techs are weaker, thanks to a 0.8% slide in Nortel on weak volume.

Financials are also lighter, with Royal Bank down 0.3%. Bank of Montreal is down too. CIBC is flat in light trading.

There is also selling in names such as Shoppers Drug Mart, Cameco, CAE, Canfor, and Enbridge Income Fund.

On the upside, gains are coming in Southwestern Resources, VSM MedTech, Methanex, Alimentation Couche-Tard, and a couple of income funds, Energy Savings Income Fund and Shiningbank Income Fund.

In M&A news, Mosaic Group has completed the sale of a substantial portion of the assets of its sales solutions business for $105 million. The proceeds from the sale will be applied to reduce outstanding obligations to secured creditors. The transaction was entered into as a part of the company’s continuing restructuring proceedings for which it retained Lazard Freres & Co.

Also, Sterling Centrecorp has completed the purchase of Levinsky Realty Corporation, a real estate brokerage firm based in Toronto.

There is also scant trading in the small caps, with the S&P/TSX Venture index also dropping three points to 1,106. Volume is very weak at 10.3 million shares, led by Venga Aerospace Systems, which is flat at 2.5¢ on 652,000 shares traded.