Trading Summary (March 26, 2004)

Canada’s diversified miner crowd was the star of the show on Friday gaining 3.39 points, or 1.6%, to hit 219.78. The golds chipped in with a 1.06-point gain to make 226. Still, it wasn’t enough to keep the Toronto Stock Exchange out of the red, with the S&P-TSX Composite Index ending 4.35 points lower at 8,509.56, thanks to a late day slide.

Northgate Exploration was the nation’s busiest mining issue, dropping a penny to $3.20 on just more than 7 million shares. The company’s issue has attracted increased investor attention since the company adopted a shareholder rights plan designed to ensure the fair treatment of Northgate’s shareholders in the event of a take-over bid. The company says it isn’t currently aware of any such bid.

Wheaton River Minerals was next with about 6.4 million shares trading their way 12 higher to $4.21, Breakwater Resources grabbed third spot falling 4 pennies to 59 on about 4.8 million shares.

Gold ended US$5.40 per oz. higher at US$422.10 in New York and sent Canada’s big three gold miners higher, Placer Dome led the bunch volume-wise and finished 28 higher at $23.53, Kinross Gold made 9 to reach $9.37, Barrick Gold rounded out the trio with a 26 gain to $30.10.

In the lower ranks, Bema Gold fell 29 to $4.75 after posting a larger fourth-quarter loss of US$21.5 million. Higher-than-expected costs at the Petrex mines in South Africa and an unrealized US$13.4 million derivative loss are to blame.

Diversified miner Teck Cominco stood out from the pack with a 95, or plus-4%, gain to $24 even. After a long wrangle over permitting, Fording Canadian Coal Trust and partner Teck recently decided to put the embattled Cheviot coal project, near Hinton, Alta., into production. The mine is expected to produce 1.4 million tonnes of coal annually at initial production rates. For their part, shares in Fording crept a dime higher to $52.85.

Off-index junior Tiomin Resources jumped 3.5, or nearly 10%, to 40. On Friday, Tiomin said it had acquired a three-acre land package on the south side of Mombasa harbour. The land will be used to build a ship-loading facility for its advancing Kwale titanium-sands project in Kenya.