By James Langton
(February 28 – 13:00ET) – Stocks are down at midday in a tech-led sell-off. The TSE 300, which now trails the Nasdaq more than it ever did the Dow, is reflecting some profit-taking in these highly valued stocks. The TSE 300 index is down 55 points to 9,086 at noon. Volume is comparatively light at 105 million shares, about 5:4 in favour of buyers. Breadth is slightly negative, though, about 10:9 in favour of decliners.
Utilities, joined by the industrials, are powering the slide. Most of the other sectors are up. Conglomerates, consumer products, miners and real estate are notably strong. The BCE Inc. bid for CTV Inc. continues to capture traders’ attention, with reaction negative. BCE is leading the utilities, and indeed the entire market, down. Its stock is off 3%, CTV is down 1.5% so far. Both are trading heavily.
National Bank is another hot trader, moving 2.1 million shares. It is down 2% after last week’s merger speculation fuelled a big run-up. The other big financial sector merger rumour, Mackenzie Financial, has slipped 2.3% on much lighter volume than Friday. Rival C.I. Fund Management was tipped to be buying the firm last Friday. Both firms denied the speculation.
Otherwise, it is some of the high-priced techs that are shedding market cap today. JDS Uniphase is the leading loser, off 3%. Nortel Networks is following BCE down, while there is also plenty of selling in BCE Emergis, Informission, Ballard Power and Tundra Semiconductor. A big slide on Nasdaq is spiriting these stocks down. At noon the Nasdaq is down 88 points to 4,502, bouncing off earlier market lows.
It is not all doom and gloom for the techs, however. Traders are simply picking their spots and riding trades up and down. Research in Motion, for example, is hitting new highs, up 8% in active trading, after announcing a couple of deals with AOL and Compaq in the U.S. Certicom, Infowave and 724 Solutions are all finding some buying interest too. Alliance Atlantis is up 16% on the heels of the CTV deal.
Despite the turmoil elsewhere, the CDNX has yet to flinch. It is up another 43 points today, to 3,763 on lightish volume of 47.4 million shares. Miners are driving it higher, up 2.4%, while energy stocks are sliding and techs are neutral. Spider Resources Inc. is the hottest trade, moving just over 1 million shares down 25% to 18¢.
Although the Nasdaq is sliding, the Dow is enjoying some rotation into its cyclicals. At midday the Dow is up 124 points to 9,986, clawing its way back to 10,000. The S&P is down just two points to 1,332.