By Jeff Sanford

(October 10 – 18:00 ET) – The Toronto Stock Exchange 300 composite index followed a downward trend, today. It followed the pace set by the NASDAQ composite index which sagged on declining values in the technology and financial services sectors.

The TSE 300 finished the day down 37.71 points, at 10,394.83, on a volume of 130.9 million shares. Decliners outnumbered advancers 646 to 445 with 270 issues remaining unchanged.

Among the subindices, nine of fourteen closed lower. The big loser was the paper and forestry products sector, which plummeted 5.3%. Abitibi Consolidated, one of the sector’s biggest weights, lost 90¢ to $12.05

The financial services sector was also hit hard by profit taking after some big gains over the last month. It dropped 3.0% today. TD fell $2.35, to close at $43.15. BMO declined $2.00 to $69.40 and CIBC slid $2.15 to close at $47.55.

The oil and gas sector headed higher on speculation that current unease in the Middle East will lead to higher oil prices. The index closed up 1.67% today.

The industrial products sector containing heavyweight Nortel Networks closed up 0.79%. Within that sector, Nortel was one of the few bright spots. It rose $2.60 to $96.25. Elsewhere in the sector, Research in Motion was off $14.75 to $153.50, JDS Uniphase fell $2.35 to $136.15 and Celestica fell $5.90 to $92.25.

The CDNX dropped 58.7 points to 3413.56, on volume of 43 million shares. Among individual issues, the downward pressure was intense: 197 issues advanced while 401 declined.

The loonie gained a bit of ground today closing at US66.69¢, compared to its close of US66.51¢ in Friday’s session. Trading was sluggish following the long weekend.

In the U.S., Yahoo announced that it has met and exceeded earnings expectations. Nevertheless, wider earnings worries sent markets down further today. The NASDAQ racked up yet another triple-digit loss plummeting 115.02, points to close at 3240.54. That’s off substantially from its 52-week high of 5132.52. The Dow Jones industrials composite index also finished down, closing off 44.03 points at 10524.40.