Oil prices climbed close to US$51 a barrel and kept Toronto stocks mixed Tuesday. At midday, the S&P/TSX composite index was up 1.92 or 0.02% to 8,814.83 on volume of 130 million shares.

A barrel of light crude was quoted at a record high US$50.80, up 89¢, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Six of the TSX index’s 10 subgroups dropped, with techs easing 1.03% after the previous session’s 3.65% gain.

Nortel Networks fell 12¢, or 2.6%, to $4.48, but Celestica was ahead 12¢ to $17.12.

The heavily weighted financial sector slipped 0.18%. Royal Bank of Canada fell 32¢ to $59.93. Manulife Financial shed 37¢ to $55.73.

On the upside, the energy sector gained 1.47%.

EnCana rose $1.10, or 1.84%, to $60.90 and Suncor was up 68¢, or 1.67% to $41.38.

Suncor , Enbridge Inc. and Spanish-owned EHN Wind Power Canada said Tuesday they have jointly submitted a proposal to the Ontario government to build a 75-megawatt wind power project near Ripley, Ont., east of Lake Huron.

Among individual stocks, Barrick Gold has won its appeal of a multimillion-dollar tax assessment in Peru. In January 2003, Barrick said it would appeal the income tax assessment of US$41 million made by Peruvian authorities in an audit of the company’s Pierina mine for the 1999 and 2000 fiscal years. Barrick shares rose 8¢ to $26.90 on the TSX

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index was up 13.58 points or 0.83% to 1,655.98.

In New York markets were mixed at midday. The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average fell 21.38 or 0.2% to 10,195.16.

The S&P 500 was up 0.50, or 0.04% at 1,135.67, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index gained 3.32,or 0.2% to 1,955.72.

Adding to investors’ worries was a disappointing report from the Institute for Supply Management, which said its service sector index fell to 56.7 in September from 58.2 in August. The reading was lower than the 59 expected by Wall Street. A figure over 50 represents expansion in the service sector, but the latest number represented a slowdown in growth.