The Toronto Stock Exchange started the trading period April 17-23 strongly but lost ground steadily after the weekend. The TSE 300 composite index fell 123.73 points to 7,717.84, finishing 1.6% behind over the five days of trading.
The bright spot was the gold sector, which responded to price strength on the bullion markets by sending the TSE gold index 409.91 points higher to 6,346.35, a gain of 6.9%.
Gold gained US$4.35 over the report period, reaching US$304.50 per oz. in the morning fixing session on April 24 in London. The price rose even though Christian Noyer, the French vice-president of the European Central Bank, said in an interview that gold’s monetary role was “declining.” In fact, the whole atmosphere in the precious metal markets was positive, with silver up US13 at US$4.48 per oz., platinum gaining US$11 to US$553 per oz., and palladium US$2 higher at US$372 per oz.
Kinross Gold led the gold group on volume, with 15.9 million shares, putting it just ahead of Barrick Gold. Both were ahead of the sector in gains, with Kinross up 21 at $2.40 and Barrick $1.98 higher at $30.04. While Kinross made some of its gains in response to the strengthening gold price, Barrick announced an initial resource figure of 55 million tonnes grading 1.95 grams gold per tonne for its Alto Chicama deposit in north-central Peru.
Placer Dome was also heavily traded, with 8.2 million shares moving. It gained 73 to close at $19.10, with the market closing just before Placer announced first-quarter earnings of US$43 million, up from US$16 million the year before.
The TSE metals and minerals index slid 155.59 points to 4,622.35, a loss of 3.3%, wiping out most of the gain the sector had racked up in the previous week. London Metal Exchange trading was uneventful, with nickel the only base metal posting a significant loss; it fell US5 per lb. to finish the period at US$3.19.
The most actively traded base metal stock was Noranda, which tacked on 40 to finish at $19.55 with 4.7 million shares on the ticker. First-quarter earnings at the diversified metal producer were $1 million, which translated into a 2-per-share loss attributable to common shares after dividends.
Falconbridge, which saw 4 million shares traded, picked up 68 to close at $20. Falco also reported its first-quarter results but needed more black ink than its parent, having made $20.4 million in the first three months of 2002.
With the Noranda group gaining and Inco adding 12 to close at $32.77, it was left to Teck Cominco to fall back. Teck’s B-series shares lost 55 and closed at $13.96 as the big zinc producer announced a sharp decrease in first-quarter earnings, to $2 million from $55 million.
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