By Jeff Sanford

(November 28 – 17:30 ET) – Although markets like the Liberal majority, worries in the tech sector sent the TSE 300 down 202.19 points to close at 8925.16, a drop of 2.22%.

Nortel was off $3.75 at $56.75, a drop of 6.20%, as jittery tech investors fled the networking giant. Also down in the tech sector were Research In Motion, which dropped 14.88% to close at $101.50, JDS Uniphase, which finished off 3.47% at $96.05 and C-Mac, which was off 6.42% at $67.

Those losses pulled the industrial products sub-index down 5.05%. Overall eight of the 14 sub-indices finished the day down. Consumer products was also off substantially, down 4.15%.

Of the five sub-indices that closed higher, none finished over 1%. Although financials were up earlier in the day, the financial sub-index ended the day up only 0.02%. National Bank of Canada, though, put in a strong performance today, finishing the day up 3.04% at $23.70.

Evidently investors like the new look of Eatons. The restoration of one of the most well-known brands in Canadian retailing, just in time for the Christmas, seems to be helping out Sears Canada. Its stock finished the day up 7.14% at $22.50.

After hitting record low earlier this week, Cinram bounced today to finish up 8.63% at $4.20.

QLT plummeted today to finish down 9.93% at $68.45, helping the consumer products index down.

Overall, 685 issues declined while only 398 advanced. Volume was only 125 million shares.

The CDNX finished down 57.54 points today at 2.977.85 on volume of 36 million shares. The venture capital exchange was shut down for three hours today, after a cut cable prevented orders from central and eastern Canada from trading. Among individual issues, 357 declined while 203 advanced.

The loonie sold off slightly today after recent advances. It closed at US65.10¢, down 0.08%.

In the United States, the Dow Jones industrial average finished the day down 38.49 points at 10,507.58. The Nasdaq composite finished down 145.51 points at 2.734.98. That’s a new low for Nasdaq, as investors continue to lower their expectations for tech stocks over the next year.

The S&P 500 finished down 12.88 at 1,336.09.