Trading Summary (July 22, 2003)

The Toronto Stock Exchange ended Tuesday’s trading session 49.22 points higher at 7,185.18, with the Health Care index leading the way with a 2.7% increase to 69.46 points. The Gold index added 1.94 points, or more than 1%, to reach 173.55, as the Diversified Metal & Mining index shed 0.21 of a point to 135.35.

Ivanhoe Mines ended the day unchanged at $3.60 with more than 4.4 million shares on the go, enough to rank as the country’s most traded miner. The junior recently increased the resource estimate at its Oyu Tolgoi gold-copper deposit in Mongolia.

Inco fell 18 to $30.09 with just short of a million shares traded. The nickel giant posted second quarter net earnings of US$60 million (or 32 per share), compared with a year-ago net loss of US$1.6 billion (US$8.70 per share). Inco said that its Manitoba and Indonesia operations helped offset production shortfalls at its Sudbury, Ontario, mining and milling complex, which has been mired by a 7-week strike. There are still no talks scheduled between Inco and the union representing the 3,300 Sudbury production and maintenance workers.

Aluminum producer Alcan wasn’t able to follow suit, tabling a second-quarter net loss of US$89 million (28 a share), compared with year-ago net income of US$71 million (22 a share).The net loss includes an after-tax charge of US$113 million related to Alcan’s planned sale some packaging businesses. Alcan added 37 to make $44.25.

Falconbridge finished unchanged at $18.20 after seeing its first-quarter earnings jump 45% to $56 million, reflecting higher nickel prices and a one-time $12-million tax recovery relating to changes in federal resource-sector taxation.

The country’s gold majors all put in modest gains. Placer Dome saw the most action, gaining 20 to make $16.95 with 1,7 million shares changing hands, Barrick Gold was next climbing 45 to $24.76 on nearly 1.6 million shares, Kinross Gold rounded out the trio adding a dime to reach $8.88 with around half as many shares traded.

Canada’s junior exchange rallied for a second straight day with investors buying select diamond and gold-related stocks. The S&P-TSX Venture Exchange composite index gained 10.20 points, or 0.91% and closed at 1,128.64.

Cardero Resources got a boost from news that the latest results from the Olaroz silver project in northwestern Argentina. Shares in the junior closed at 84, up 15 with 919,440 shares traded. The best values came from hole 6A, which yielded 13.5 metres grading 556.5 grams silver per tonne.

Shares in Shear Minerals recovered modestly from yesterday’s sell-off, climbing 9 to close at 90 on 800,000 shares traded. Investors sold off the junior following news that Toronto-listed Cumberland Resources failed to find any significant diamond values in its kimberlites on the Meliadine East project in the Churchill province. Shear holds a 51% stake in the Churchill diamond project with Northern Empire Minerals, now Stornoway Diamonds and BHP Billiton. Stornoway ended the day at $1.40, up 2 on 73,980 shares traded.