By James Langton

(May 30 -13:00 ET) – Gloomy tech stocks are doing their best to take the stuffing out of markets today. At midday, the TSE 300 is down 116 points to 8,136. Volume is huge at 127.4 million shares, thanks to the action in Gulf Canada.

Sellers outnumber buyers more than five to one. Market breadth betrays the bearishness in the market, with losers outpacing winners two to one.

Pipelines is the only sub-index in the black today, every other sector is down. Techs are leading the way as the earnings warnings for the second quarter begin to flow, and analysts pile on with their too-little, too-late downgrades. As a result, the industrial sub-index is down 4.4% today. Other weak sectors include conglomerates, consumer stocks and media plays.

Takeover target Gulf Canada is giving the TSE’s new trading system a good workout today, moving an incredible 61.8 million shares this morning with nary a slip up. The stock is down a penny.

The big price action today is being led by Nortel Networks, which is down more than 7% on 3.4 million shares. The firm is reportedly exiting businesses and searching for a new CEO. This morning Nortel was cut to a “Neutral” rating by Morgan Stanley, along with JDS Uniphase and other networkers. Weak demand in the sector and no evidence of a turnaround is the reason cited for the downgrades.

Following Nortel, Celestica is down 10% in heavy trading. Other big losers include JDS, Siebel, Sierra Wireless Descartes Systems, Tundra Semi. BCE Emergis and Telesystem.

Norske Skog, which is cutting back production, is another loser. Kinross Gold and Placer Dome are weak too, as is Dreco Energy.

Financial stocks are more or less flat at midday. Bank of Nova Scotia is strong again today, up 2% in active trading. CIBC is flat in active trading, Royal Bank is down, as are most of the insurers and fund companies.

Laurentian Bank reported strong earnings today, beating analysts by a penny with an 83¢ profit in the second quarter, up from 70¢ in the period last year. The bank cites its acquisition of 43 Quebec-based Scotia branches last summer as one of the reasons for the strong results. It is up a little on the news.

Gains today are centered in energy, thanks to Pacific Northern Gas, Enbridge, Storm Energy, Pipe NT, and ARC Strategic Energy Fund. Other gainers include CHC, Intertape Polymer and Richelieu Hardware.

In other news, Geac Computer has appointed Paul Birch to be its COO and CFO. Prior to joining Geac, Birch was a director, COO and CFO of Escher Group Ltd.

Telus says it has successfully closed its previously announced unsecured notes offerings for gross proceeds of approximately $6.7 billion and bank credit facilities with total availability of $2.5 billion.

In New York, markets are weak, with techs leading the way. The Dow Jones industrial average is off 87 points to 10,952. The Nasdaq composite has dropped 71 points to 2,104. The S&P 500 is down 13 points to 1,255.

The CDNX makes it a unanimous day for bears. It is down 30 points to 3,292 on volume of 18.4 million shares. Techs are weak, off 1.3%, followed by mines and oils, which are down too. American Bonanza Gold is the top trader, flat at 5¢ on more than 1 million shares traded.