Toronto traders are holding up well in the face of an anthrax scare at the London Stock Exchange that has spooked traders elsewhere.

At midday the TSE 300 is clinging to a small gain, up 22 points to 6,978 on relatively light volume of 62 million shares. Buying volume is ahead of selling volume by a margin of 3 to two, and winners hold a nine to seven edge on losers.

There are no major sector moves one way or the other today. Transports are up, as are energy stocks, miners, techs and biotechs

Most of the weakness is in media stocks and financials. Other sectors are demonstrating small gains.

Tech stocks are leading the way higher, with small gains in Celestica and Nortel Networks providing much of the oomph behind trading. There are gains in Descartes Systems, Mosaid Technologies, Sierra Wireless, Certicom and Exfo Electro.

There are also gains in Rio Alto, Vivendi, CP Ships and Co-Steel.

On the downside, there’s some enthusiastic selling in bank stocks, with CIBC, Bank of Nova Scotia, and Royal Bank all down in active trading.

There’s also weakness in Pan Canadian Energy, Stelco, Petrobank Energy, Air Canada, Sears, Teck and Zenon Enviro.

In business news, Microforum is taking additional actions to reduce operating costs after reporting a loss from continuing operations of $3.7 million for the three-month period ended August 31. The firm will also attempt to cut another $2.5 million in annual operating expenses, by cutting its workforce 20%. It is also looking to dispose of its marketing unit, PPL Marketing.

Laurentian Bank has introduced a domestic public offering of four million non-cumulative class A preferred shares for $100 million. The offering will be underwritten by a syndicate led by RBC Dominion Securities Inc., and is expected to close on November 7. The net proceeds of this offering will be used for general banking purposes and will enlarge the bank’s Tier 1 capital base.

In New York, traders are apparently feeling more nervous in the wake of the latest anthrax scares. At midday the Dow Jones industrial average is down 33 points to 9,315. Nasdaq has dropped two ticks to 1,695. The S&P 500 has shed two points to 1,088.

The CDNX is weaker today, too, down two points to 2,873. Volume is weak there too at 11.2 million shares. Energy stocks are powering the way down, ahead of slight gains in techs and miners. Genoil Inc is the top trader, up 9% to 35¢ on 1.2 million shares.