Markets gave up some of the gains they packed on yesterday, but the pullbacks were on much lighter volume than yesterday’s advances.

The TSE opened lower this morning and steadily declined throughout the day. By the final bell it was down 64 points to 8,194. Volume was 115 million shares.

Only three of the TSE’s 14 sub-indices posted gains. pipelines, communications and paper and forest products sectors were up on the day.

The downside was led by the tech-heavy industrial products sub-index, which fell 2%, and metals and minerals, off 1.8%.

Among the techs, RIM led the decline with a drop of 9.1% to close at $53.. Nortel was off 3.14% at $20.05.

Overall, market trend among individual issues was positive with 612 issues advancing and 457 declining.

News that Black Swan has completed its acquisition of South Atlantic’s Brazilian diamond mines sent the price of Black Swan up 16% today to close at 29¢. It was a popular issues today, coming in third on the TSE’s most active list today.

Profit takers stepped in to take Teck Corp down some. The company had been gaining all week after it settled its dispute with tax authorities and got back some $73 million in cash it had deposited with CCRA. Teck closed off 4.66% today at $16.16.

Stelco and Cominco were both active today. They dropped 4.04% and 4.01% to close at $4.75 and $34.70 respectively.

Perhaps it’s the Canadian government’s new chillier reception with the Cuban government, but Sherrit continues to sell-off. It was down 6.62% to close at $5.50.

360networks also continues its long downward slide. It closed off another 5.49% today. It’s now at $1.72.

Stressgen today soared on good news from a clinical trial for its genital wart drug HspE7. It advanced 15.90% to $6.78.

The CDNX bucked the North American trend and advanced slightly on the day. It finished up 9 points at 3,363. Market trend was just about neutral with 237 issues advancing and 221 declining. Volume was 42.8 million shares.

The loonie continues its show of strenght, climbing 0.34% today to close at 65.56¢ U.S.

In New York, markets gave up yesterday’s gains. The Dow Jones industrial average suffered triple-digit loss, falling 105 points to 11,070. The Nasdaq composite index slipped 16 points to 2,218. The S&P 500 lost 14 points to close at 1,270.