It was all downhill for the Toronto Stock Exchange during the May 7-11 trading week as uncertainty in Europe continued and worries over China’s slowed growth increased, offsetting strong job creation data from Canada.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index tumbled, losing 176.56 points to end at 1,694.67.
In New York, the spot price of gold closed down US$61.70 per oz. to US$1,580.40, hurting gold miners. As a result, the S&P/TSX Global Gold Index slipped 13 points to 286.43.
The base-metal miners didn’t fare so well either as reflected by the 58.7-point drop in the S&P/TSX Capped Diversified Metals & Mining Index, which closed at 902.69 points.
Osisko Mining was the most actively traded stock as 24.3 million shares changed hands, pushing the junior down 2.3% to $7.40 apiece.
During the week, the Montreal-based company shutd own its Malartic mill following a fire and reported weak first-quarter results.
Osisko earned a profit of 8¢ per share, below consensus of 12¢ per share, and produced 91,178 oz. gold.
The company missed its production target due to operational difficulties at the Malartic gold mine, related to the installation of the new secondary cone crusher. This led to the mill closing for a week in March.
The mill will be offline for another two to three weeks as the company continues to assess the damages caused by the fire. In light of these events, Osisko expects to lower its 2012 production guidance.
Kinross Gold saw heavy trading as it released its first-quarter financials. Profit fell to US$105.7 million, down from US$250.1 million a year ago as production slipped.
Excluding one-time items, Kinross earned US18¢ a share, up from US15¢ a share in the comparable period last year.
The company produced 604,247 gold equivalent oz., down from 642,857 oz. a year ago, while production cost of sale rose to US$742 per gold equivalent oz., up from US$545.
Kinross reiterated its 2012 output target of 2.6 to 2.8 million attributable gold equivalent oz., and production costs of US$670 to US$715 per gold equivalent oz.
Kinross’s shares stayed relatively flat to close at $7.91 apiece on 24.2 million shares traded.
Petaquilla Minerals moved up 9.3% to 35¢ after it filed a revised technical report for its Molejon project in Panama, addressing the deficiencies recently identified by the British Columbia Securities Commission.
It also brought on Andrew Ramcharan as the company’s executive vice-president and added Don Cristobal Colon de Carvajal to the company’s advisory board.
Petaquilla still needs to update its technical report on the Lomero-Poyatos polymetallic mine in Spain.
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