By Jeff Sanford

(April 30 – 18:00 ET) – Although the TSE 300 was in the black for most of the day, it ran into selling pressure late in the afternoon. The composite index dipped into the red to close down 20.70 points at 7,946.60

The market was in a bit of a tug of war today with the sub-indices moving against each other. Even though the market closed down, the industrial products sub-index advanced 2.5% on strong gains in its main component stocks. Nortel Networks gained 4.8% at $23.40, Celestica advanced 5.8% at $79.00, CGI climbed 6.4% to close at $8.62 and C-Mac closed up 5.4% at $49.75.

The consumer products were also up on strength in TLC Eye Laser Centers, which was up 7.9% at $8.09, and Biochem Pharma, which was up 4.3% at $48.59.

On the downside was gold with a 2.2% decline and communications, which was off 1.7%. Overall, 10 of the TSE’s 14 sub-indices finished the day down

Among individual issues, though, the trend was positive with advancers outpacing decliners 565 to 495. Volume was 166 million shares.

News that Teck Corp. and Cominco will merge to form a single giant zinc manufacturer brought arbitragers out of the closet. Teck and Cominco were the second and third most heavily traded issues of the day after Nortel. Teck slipped 11.66% at $15.46, while Cominco climbed 3.41% to close at $33.35.

360Netowrks slid agian, dropping 16.67% to close at $2.60.

Bombardier announced today that it has completed its acquisition of European rail car maker, Adtranz. That should reduce competition in that sector. Nevertheless Bombardier dipped 3.06% today to close at $22.15 as some investors withdrew their profits.

Among the drooping financials, Bank of Nova Scotia finished off 3.67% at $38.05. Royal Bank was down 3.27% at $42.95.

Sherritt reported a drop in earnings today and paid the price. It closed down 4.54% at $4.42.

The CDNX advanced 2.02% to close at 3,057.92, on volume of 43 million shares. The market trend among individual issues was negative, though, with 262 issues declining and 251 advancing.

The loonie put on almost a third of a cent today to close at US65.08¢.

On Wall Street, markets mimicked the performance of the TSE. Techs were strong, though the rest of the market drifted lower.

The Nasdaq composite index advanced 40.62 points to 2116.30. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 75.08 points at 10,734.97. The S&P 500 slipped 3.59 points to 1,249.46.