By Jeff Sanford

(November 20 – 17:45 ET) – The TSE 300 finished down slightly on the day even though Nortel made strong advances, a note that there’s a new market dynamic. With Nortel trading at half its record high, the stock just can’t push the market around like it used to.

The TSE 300 shed 17.89 points to close at 8,935.12.

Even though Nortel gained $2.30, or 4.36%, to close at $55.10, it wasn’t enough to outweigh a general downdraft in Toronto.

Every sub-index of the TSE was down except for gold, industrial products and real estate. Leading the way lower were financial services, metals, utilities and paper; all were down over 1%.

Declining issues outpaced advancing ones, 699 to 393. Volume was light as many investors sat the day out. Just over 100 million shares were traded.

Whatever the case, Wi-Lan had a rough day. After announcing that 2001 revenues won’t meet analysts expectations, its stock fell by 35.56% to $11.60

The rest of the tech sector experienced some big losses. Celestica was down 5.35% to $93.70, JDS was down 6.02% at $103.85, Mitel was down 4.41% at $16.25 and Research In Motion was down 5.345 at $133. Descartes Systems lost 4.52% to close at $44.40.

BCE slipped 2.94% today to close at $39.60.

Continuing concern about exposure to telecom loans exerted further downward pressure on the bank stocks. Within that sector, TD, the second most heavily traded stock of the day, was down 2.63% at $38.95. Bank of Nova Scotia stock was down 3.38% at $38.65, while Royal Bank, which will report third quarter earnings Tuseday, was down 1.03% at $48.

The CDNX finished the day off 27.67 points at 3,104.84, a minor decline of 0.88%. Declining issues outpaced advancing issues 387 to 203; volume was only 37 million shares.

The loonie finished the day at US64.23¢, a slight increase of 0.14% from Friday’s close.

In New York, negative analyst reports on the earnings potential of tech-stocks sent the Nasdaq composite to its lowest close of the year. It finished the day at 2,875.64, off 151.55 points.

The Dow Jones industrial average was also down substantially, finishing at 10,462.65, a loss of 167.22 points. The S&P 500 closed at 1m342.61, a loss of 25.11 points.