Trading Summary (April 04, 2002)

The oil sector led the Toronto Stock Exchange lower on Thursday, with crude prices retreating from recent highs. The Oil & Gas subindex dropped 254.31 points or 2.4% helping the TSE 300 composite index 57.82 points lower to 7,784.5. The dive by the golds tapered off dropping just 3.48 points to 6,101.95. The Metals & Mineral subgroup shed nearly 2%. By day’s end, just three of the TSE’s 14 subindices were in the black, led by the Merchandising subindex, up about 0.74%.

McWatters Mining ranked as Canada’s busiest mining stock with about 2.25 million shares on the go, enough to just miss a spot in the TSE’s top ten traded list. The issue was unchanged at 12. Under its reorganization plan, McWatters common shares began trading under the symbol MWA on Thursday. Under the plan, each common shares will be exchanged for 0.28122 of a new common shares.

Another gold miner making news was mid-tier producer Meridian Gold, which announced a US$228-million all-stock plan to acquire London-based Brancote Holdings. The key to the deal for Meridian is Brancote’s 74% stake in the Esquel gold project in southern Argentina.

Semafo gained a penny to 44. On Thursday, the company announced that it has opened its first gold mine, Kiniero, in Guinea, on budget and ahead of schedule. The open-pit mine was formerly known as the Jean Gobele project.

The base metal miners continued to wallow in the red stuff with losses across the board. Alcan led the pack dropping $1.12 to $60.68 on about 1.7 million shares. Inco dropped 71 to $30.34 and Teck Cominco’s B series slid a quarter to $14.20, on about 1.7 million and 1.4 million shares, respectively.

Canada’s junior exchange continued to drift lower on modest volume. The S&P-CDNX Composite Index lost 4.36 points, or 0.4% to close at 1174.18.

International Taurus Resources ended the session unchanged at 9 on 813,500 shares. The junior holds a 66.7% stake in the Fenelon gold project in northwestern Quebec. The company is eyeing the prospects mining the property on a small scale.

Madison Enterprises added 3 to close at 20 on 583,500 shares. The company has resumed exploration on its Mt. Kare gold property in Papua New Guinea.

Major General Resources added 2 on news that a $1.5 million drill program will begin in May on diamond projects in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. Stock in the junior ended the day at 16 on 467,000 shares.