Toronto stocks are modestly lower on profit taking. At midday, the S&P/TSX composite index is off 13 points to 8,819.

Volume is light leading up to Good Friday, with 122 million shares changing hands.

Most of the TSX sectors are lower with tech issues down 0.84%. Only the energy, gold and real estate groups are in the black.

Tech bellwether Nortel Networks is off 12¢ at $7.57 and Zarlink Semiconductor is down 11¢ at $5.17.

Research In Motion is off $1.56 at C$142.44. The company reports results after the market closes.

On the upside, gold stocks are up 1.29% percent as the price of bullion steadied in London.

Mid-tier miner Golden Star Resources is ahead 29¢ to $8,90.

Major gold producer Placer Dome is up 10¢ rose 21 Canadian cents to C$23.65 after it said it would go ahead with evaluating building a mine at the Cerro Casale copper-gold project in Chile.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index is off four points to 1,875.89.

U.S. stocks are weaker at midday on Wednesday with the blue chips roiled by Alcoa’s earnings miss, and the techs getting hit following a warning from disk drive maker Seagate.

The Dow Jones industrial average is down 92 points to 10,478, while the Nasdaq composite index has fallen 19 points to 2,040.

The S&P 500 is off eight points to 1,140.