By James Langton

(March 1 – 13:00 ET) – Markets have been bouncing around in a relatively narrow range after an opening loss this morning. At midday the TSE 300 is down about 31 points to 8,047.

Volume is average at 84.2 million shares, with sellers outnumbering buyers about five to three. Losers hold a five to four edge over winners.

The Toronto stocks are split down the middle on a sector basis, with the industrials and real estate leading the losers today. Software is down hardest, off almost 4%. But pushing against the tide of selling are the financials, energy and merchandisers.

Nortel Networks is leading the downside, off 2.8% on strong volume of 8.2 million shares. Ordinarily that would be a disaster for the market, but the newly humbled Nortel doesn’t cast the shadow over the TSE that it once did. The familiar refrain, “tech profit worries”, is the culprit once again.

Joining Nortel on the downside is Celestica, Exfo Electro, Hummingbird, and Descartes Systems. Ballard Power is weak too, and Oxford Properties is pulling the real estate group lower. Other notable slides are evident in Molson, Onex and Barrick Gold.

The financials are boosted by the insurers, led by Manulife and Sun Life. Some investors are dumping the banks and heading for safety. Takeover talk also continues to percolate.

The banks themselves are mixed today. CIBC is up almost 4% in heavy trading after announcing its strong first quarter results. Bank of Montreal and TD are heavily traded on the downside, with Royal Bank and Scotia are also making gains.

Apart from CIBC and RBC, there’s strength in blue chip Bombardier. Loblaws, Northstar Energy, Veritas, Pivotal and Angiotech are also making gains.

The paper sector is flat today, despite rumours that Finnish foreser UPM-Kymmene and Norske Skog of Norway have had merger talks about a deal that would create a newsprint giant.

In other news, Brookfield Properties has filed a preliminary prospectus to qualify 4.6 million shares to be distributed in a secondary offering by Trilon Financial Corp. Trilon received these shares in 1997 in connection with its sale of common shares of Gentra Inc. The deal has been sold to a syndicate of investment dealers.

In New York, stocks opened lower and have been grinding down much of the day. At midday, the Dow Jones industrial average is off 160 points to 10,334.

The Nasdaq composite index has shed 47 points to 2,105. The S&P 500 is down 19 points to 1,221.

The National Association of Purchasing Managers report showed a slight uptick in sentiment this morning, but it isn’t considered convincing enough either up or down to give markets much direction. Cisco, Sun, Microsoft and 3Com are leading Nasdaq down. On the NYSE, it’s Nortel, EMC, AOL, GE, and Schering-Plough.

The CDNX is down a modest nine points to 3,054. Volume is strong at 19.3 million shares. Techs are down, but both mines and oils are resisting the slide. Transition Therapeutics is the top trader in its debut, up 32% to $1.65 on an incredible 4.5 million shares.