By James Langton

(May 8 – 13:00 ET) – Toronto stocks opened up this morning, with some optimism in the techs driving the trade. They’ve sold off a bit since then, but are holding onto gains at midday. The TSE 300 is still up 29 points to 8,051.

Volume is stronger today at almost 71 million shares, with buyers holding an almost three to two edge over sellers. Market breadth is much more even however. It’s virtually a dead heat between winners and losers.

On a sector basis the split is even, too, with half of the TSE’s 14 sub-indices up, and half down. Techs and media stocks are up a bit, followed by financials. Miners are leading the downside, joined by pipelines and real estate.

Nortel Networks is leading the way higher this morning, thanks to some positive talk about rivals Cisco Systems and Ciena this morning. Nortel is up about 2.2% on 5.3 million shares. A few other techs are making gains, too, including C-MAC, Pivotal, Tundra Semi and Geac Computer.

There are also gains in select names such as Zenon Environmental, Patheon, Aastra, Westcoast Energy and Empire. The financials are split, with a positive bias. Royal Bank is rather strong today, up 1.7% in heavy trading. The other banks are mostly up, but the insurers and fund companies are split.

On the downside, traders are taking some steam out recent hot traders such as Teck, 360networks and TransCanada Pipelines. Down moves are also evident in Leitch Technologies, Microcell, Brascan, Rogers Wieless, MindReady Solutions, Emco and Acktion.

In earnings news, Anderson Exploration Ltd. saw its second quarter profits climb to $1.52 a share, from 36¢ a share in the period yesterday.

In other news, Call-Net Enterprises Inc is implementing a cost cutting program, targeting all unnecessary expenditures and costs. Its 2,400 member work force will be reduced by 15% by end of the year. Capital spending for the year 2001 will be reduced to the $150 million level.

In New York, early gains have been surrendered at midday. The Dow Jones industrial average is off 110 points to 10,825. The Nasdaq composite has dropped seven ticks to 2,166. The S&P 500 is down 10 points to 1,253.

Traders used early gains to unload tech stocks. Financials are also weak on news of a downgrade for American Express.

The CDNX is following the TSE higher again today. At midday, the venture capital exchange is up 25 points to 3,157. Volume is average at 17.1 million shares. Oils are down, but mines and techs are rallying. Wavve TeleCommunications is the top trader, up 25% to 30¢ on volume of 1.6 million shares.