Trading Summary (April 11, 2002)

The conglomerates subindex, up 0.4%, was alone in the black on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Thursday. The red tide swallowed the rest with communications & media subgroup taking the biggest hit, off more than 3.5%. The golds failed to hang on to Wednesday’s gains dropping 86.26 points to 5,968.15. The base metal issues slid 67.23 pints to 4,650.24. Overall, the TSE was off 111.36 points or 1.4%.

Kinross Gold was the most heavily traded miner spilling a nickel to settle at $2.02 with 2.8 million shares traded. Next in line was Goldcorp, which dropped $1.01 to $26.10 on a volume of 2.6 million. On Thursday the mid-tier gold producer announced an agreement to raise US$90 million, with the potential for another US$54 million.

Placer Dome saw 2 million shares cross the floor only to fall 33 to $18.40. On Thursday, Placer and Kinross announced a tentative deal to combine their operations in Ontario’s Porcupine camp. By chipping in its Dome mine and mill, Placer will hold 51% of the joint venture. Kinross will have 49% and contribute its Hoyle Pond, Pamour and Nighthawk Lake mines plus its Bell Creek mill facility.

Falconbridge led a generally quieter group of base metal miners gaining 42 to $19.32 on about 1.7 million shares. Also on the plus side were Inco, up a penny to $32.65, another new 52-week high, Sherritt International, 16 higher at $4.91, and Noranda, which gained 24 to $18.30. Zinc miner Breakwater Resources grabbed 3 pennies or 12.5% to hit 27.

Headed south was Alcan, off $1.36 to $61. The aluminum giant filed with U.S. regulators on Thursday to occasionally sell up to US$1 billion in debt securities, preference and common shares, and warrants. Proceeds will go toward general corporate purposes and possibly short-term investments.

Canada’s junior exchange managed to bounce off session lows but still ended the session firmly in the red. The S&P-CDNX Composite Index fell 7.51 points, or 0.6% to close at 1158.19.

Macdonald Mines topped the most actively traded chart among junior explorers, adding 2 to close at 6 on over 1.9 million shares. The company has explored for gold in Cuba and maintains a presence there, but more recently sought platinum-palladium ground in Ontario.

ECU Silver added a penny to close at 7 on 947,000 shares. The company holds the Velardena property in Mexico. At last count the property held total resources of 2.5 million tonnes grading 2.8 grams gold and 269 grams silver per tonne.

Francisco Gold continued to move higher ahead of the company’s annual shareholder meeting set for May 30. Shares in the junior jumped 20 to close at $15.05 on a volume of 196,690. Toronto-listed Glamis Gold entered into an agreement to acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of Francisco. Glamis is offering to exchange 1.55 shares and 1 share in a new exploration company for each issued Francisco share.