Trading Summary (December 10, 2001)

Revenue warnings from JDS Uniphase sent the tech-heavy Industrial Products subindex down 107.21 points or 2.7% and led the Toronto Stock Exchange to a 57-point or 0.75% drop to 7,559.8 on Monday. By day’s end, just four of the TSE’s fourteen subindices were using black ink. The Communications sector put in the best showing creeping up about 0.7%.

Palladium outperformed the other precious metals in New York. The silvery white metal tacked on another US$10 to hit US$425 per oz. Sister metal platinum gained US$4 to US$471 per oz. Gold went the other way falling US$2.05 to US$272.05. Silver was unchanged at $4.24. The base metals were lower across the board on the London Metal Exchange.

Franco-Nevada Mining jumped to the head of the class among all miners with nearly 3.3 million shares on the move. The issue fell 64 to $22.35. On Monday, Newmont Mining, which in Nov. agreed to acquire Franco if it gets at least 50.1% of Normandy, bumped its bid for Australia’s Normandy Mining by adding a A40-per-share cash sweetener. Normandy’s shares on the TSE climbed 65 to $14.10.

The country’s remaining gold majors fared about as well. Barrick Gold saw just more than 1 million shares cr4oss the floor to fall 2 to $23.76; Placer Dome fell 17 to $16.88; Kinross Gold shed 2 to $1.03; TVG Gold lost the same to 62 and Cambior spilled 4 to hit 70. In the end, the TSE’s Gold & Precious Minerals subindex fell 43.59 points to 4,799.61.

The refrain was the same among the base metal miners. Teck Cominco was the busiest with just more than 827,000 shares traded. The issue fell 30 to $11.65. Inco was off 61 to $25.98; Falconbridge lost 41 to $15.44Sherritt International slid 2 to $4; Noranda fell the same to $14.35; and Alcan dropped 59 to $57.50. The Metals & Minerals subindex was off 49.17 points to 4,084.2.

The Canadian Venture Exchange started the trading week by introducing a new composite index. The S&P-CDNX Composite Index is a market capitalization-based index meant to provide an indication of performance for companies listed on the CDNX. The new index started trading at a baseline value of 1000 and ended the session down 4.54 points, or 0.5% to close at 995.46.

Shares in Western Pacific Gold plunged 3 to end the day at 3 on a volume of 300,000. The Edmonton-based company has closed the sale of Australian-based D’Aguilar Gold Pty.

Failing to get a boost from news that Barrick Gold can earn up to a 75% stake in its Botwood Basin gold project in Newfoundland, Altius Minerals lost 5 to 80 on 152,000 shares. The major is eyeing possible “Carlin-Type”, gold deposits on the property.

Shares in Aurora Platinum continued to move higher climbing 6 to close at $3.30 on volume of 101,000. The junior announced a $600,000 financing comprising 235,000 units priced at $2.55 each. The company has several active nickel-copper-platinum-palladium properties in Ontario and Quebec and is currently drilling its Nickel Lake prospect on the Foy property near Sudbury.

Spider Resources ended the day flat at 4 on 181,000 shares. The junior has an interest in several diamond projects in northern Ontario.

Shares of Andean American Mining climbed towards a new 52-week high ending the day at 49, up 4 on a volume of 87,800. The company is currently running a test pilot plant at its Santa Rosa gold property in Peru. By early next year the company envisions a 3,250 tonnes per day gold operation.