TORONTO, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Toronto stocks were flat at mid morning in listless trading on Friday as traders sat on the sidelines after notching two straight positive closes, while buying of beaten-down stocks including Bombardier Inc. and Air Canada were helping to temper the losses.
The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index was down 5.95 points at 6,551.62. Volume was a light 25.1 million shares.
"It is another Friday. Everything is sloppy and a little weaker. There's nothing much doing here," said Sal Masionis, a stockbroker at Brant Securities, in Toronto. "This is just more of the same, just the bottoming process."
Even weak U.S. housing starts data, which were knocking the U.S. markets lower, were not having much an effect on the local market.
In Toronto, six of the TSX index's 10 groups were lower, led by 0.6 percent fall in the consumer discretionary group and a 0.4 percent dip in utility stocks. Gold stocks, a component of the materials group, were off 0.7 percent.
Auto-parts maker Magna International Inc. was off 93 Canadian cents, or 1 percent, at C$92.80 to lead consumer stocks lower. Canadian media company CanWest Global Communications Corp. was down 12 Canadian cents at C$5.50.
However, the stocks that were beaten up in previous sessions were actually helping to slow the losses.
Air Canada, which has been hurt by concerns that a possible bankruptcy protection filing by its main U.S. partner, United Airlines , would hurt the Canadian carrier, was up 23 Canadian cents, or 4.3 percent, at C$5.48.
The company tried to reassure investors on Thursday saying the possible bankruptcy protection should have no impact on its operations and urged its customers to keep booking flights.
Bombardier, the world's No. 1 maker of passenger rail equipment, was up 1 Canadian cent at C$8.00 on volume of 3.8 million shares.
The company has been punished in the past few days after U.S. rail operator Amtrak suspended its Acela Express trains, co-built by Bombardier, from service for the second time this week due to cracks in the trains' suspensions.
($1=$1.56 Canadian)