Trading Summary (December 08, 2003)

Toronto equities were mixed on Monday, as the TSX Composite index edged up 0.49 points to 7,990.77. The day saw the energy stocks continue their rapid climb, while the golds fell and both the base metals and “materials” indexes rose.

Gold bullion had a generally good day, finishing at US$406.20 on the New York Comex after a fixing of US$406.15 in London. Silver also continued its upward trend, with a fix of US$5.505 in London and a close of US$5.52 on the Comex.

That didn’t translate into a rise for the equities, though, as the TSX Gold index slipped 1.71 to 240.06. That masked a generally poor day for most gold stocks, with 10 of the 14 stocks on the index falling. Most active was Wheaton River Minerals, which was one of the few gainers: it rose 3 to $4.19 on a volume of 8.6 million shares.Bema Gold, with 4.1 million shares trading, fell 19 to $5.14, while Kinross Gold, its joint-venture partner at the Refugio mine in Chile, was of 18 at $11.60. The pair announced last Thursday that Refugio would go back into production at a capital cost of US$71 million.

Over on the TSX Metals and Mining board, the index was up 1.15 points to 210.99, with five of nine stocks advancing. That included a 31 march by Sherritt International, to $5.90, on a volume of 3.2 million shares. On the losing side, Ivanhoe Mines fell $1.01 to $9.89 on a 3.3-million-share day. Ivanhoe announced it had arranged a 12.5-million share issue at $10.50 for proceeds of US$100 million.

Off the indexes, gold miner Northgate Exploration was down 7 to $2.62 in relatively heavy trading of 2.5 million shares. South African explorer Great Basin Gold was up 50 at $3.90 on a volume of 2.1 million shares.

Canada’s junior exchange started the trading week off on a sour note despite a strong showing from afew select issues. The S&P-TSX Venture Exchange composite index lost 13.16 points, or 0.76%, and closed at 1,720.89.

Mandorin Goldfields added 7 on news that the junior will move ahead with potential projects in china. The company inked a memorandum of understanding with JEL Project & Construction Management, which holds resource concession rights and legal title to number of gold projects in China. Mandorin ended the day at 16 on 5.4 million shares traded.

Making a big percentage move, Stornoway Diamond added 53 to close at $1.95 on 3.17 million shares traded. Driving the share price was news that diamond results from recent drilling on the 5.5 million acre Aviat project on the Melville Peninsula in eastern Nunavut yielded 737 diamonds from 531.7kgs of the AV-1 kimberlite and 30 diamonds from 39.4kgs of the AV-2 kimberlite. The three largest stone measured 4-by-3.5-by-1.8 mm.

Investors continued to bid up shares in JNR Resources. The junior added 2.5 to close at 35.5 on 1.3 million shares traded. JNR recently dealt an option on its Moore Lake and Lazy Edward Bay uranium properties to International Uranium. The prospective project lie in the Athabasca Basin of northern Saskatchewan.