Trading Summary (August 22, 2003)

Trading Summary

Markets were generally weaker on Friday, closing off a one-week market rally. The TSX Composite index fell 49.27 points to finish at 7,467.18, with most of the market sectors, including the mining stocks, down on the day.

The gold price wobbled during the day; the London dealers fixed it at US$360.75 in the morning but trading forced it back to a fix of US$358.75 in the afternoon. It was left to the New York buyers to drive the price back up to the US$363 range in later trading. By that time the price rally was too late to support the Toronto gold equities, which had had a good week anyway. The TSX Gold index fell 2.18 points to 195.20.

It was a relatively light trading day for the golds. Iamgold was the volume leader, with 2.5 million shares moving, and it fell 3 to $8.10. Losses in two heavyweight issues — Placer Dome and Kinross Gold — weighed down the gold index; Placer was off 41 at $18.25, a fall of 2.2%, and Kinross backed up 18 to close at $9.87.

Bema Gold, whether on its own merits or as a possible takeover target, has stayed mostly immune from setbacks in the gold sector this month; Friday was no different as it gained 2 to close at $3.

The TSX Metals and Mining index was off 1.08 points to 152.99, on pace with the broad market. The most active issue was Ivanhoe Mines, up 6 at $5.56 on a volume of 1.9 million shares. Just over a million Teck Cominco B-series shares traded, closing a nickel higher at $13.80.

Most of the other base metal miners were weaker, with Cameco having the worst day; it closed at $46.50, down $1.40 in light trading. Inco fell 20 to $35 and Sherritt International was off a dime at $4.92, but rival nickel producers LionOre Mining International and Falconbridge both gained, LionOre adding 5 to close at $6.85 and Falco picking up a dime to close at $20.95. Sherritt was the only one of the four not to reach a new 52-week high this week.

Another new high came on the junior board, for Queenstake Resources. The new gold miner was up 9 to 73 on a volume of 4.6 million shares. Rio Narcea Gold, which was down 10 at $2.63, announced it had finalized US$47 million in debt financing to help build its Aguablanca nickel project in southwestern Spain.

Canada’s junior exchange ended the trading week at a new yearly high with advancing stocks outpacing declining issues by a 382-to-279 margin. The S&P-TSX Venture Exchange composite index gained 4.43 points, or 0.35%, and closed at 1,284.48.

Glencairn Gold got a boost from a $1.6 million flow through financing. The junior added 7 to close at 60 on 1.23 million shares traded. The funds will be kept in escrow pending the closing of Glencairn’s proposed merger with Toronto-listed Black Hawk Mining. The money from the financing will be used to explore Black Hawk’s Vogel gold property in Timmins, Ontario.

Shear Minerals continued to trade heavily, closing the week up 6 to $1.04 with 584,010 shares traded. Shear currently has a portfolio of eleven diamond projects in the North Slave and Keewatin regions of Nunavut, the Lac de Gras region of the Northwest Territories, Northern Alberta, and Alaska. Eight of these projects are drill-ready. Shear also has four gold projects, two of which are drill-ready, located in the North Slave of Nunavut.

Pan Asia Mining added 2 to close at 15.5 on 1.35 million shares traded. The company recently resumed trading after completing a technical reprot on its 701 diamond mine in China’s Shandong province. The project hosts the Chagma diamond deposit, which consists of a big pipe, a small pipe and the #2 dike that all merge together some 300 metres below surface.