Trading Summary (April 12, 2002)

Profit taking sent the oil & gas sector down another 2.8% on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Friday. Thankfully, plus-2% gains by the technology and paper & forest subgroups countered the oil stock losses and helped the TSE to a 42.27-point gain to 7,731. The golds gained 83.27 points to 6,051.42, while the base metal issues grabbed 27.79 points to hit 4,678.03.

Kinross Gold shot up 27 or 13.4% to $2.29 with more than 8.4 million shares traded, behind only market heavyweight Nortel Networks in trading volume. On Thursday, Kinross announced a tentative deal to combine its operations in the Porcupine camp mining area in Ontario, with those of Placer Dome. Kinross will hold 49% of the joint venture and Placer 51%. Placer is chipping in its Dome mine and mill, and Kinross is contributing its Hoyle Pond, Pamour and Nighthawk Lake mines, plus its Bell Creek mill facility. For their part, Placer shares climbed 45 to $18.85.

Another gold miner making the TSE’s top ten traded list was TVX Gold, which was up a penny to $1.10 on 2.8 million shares. On Friday, TVX said it has completed its previously announced $75-million equity offering. A syndicate of underwriters, lead by BMO Nesbitt Burns and including Griffiths McBurney & Partners, Canaccord Capital, Scotia Capital, TD Securities and Sprott Securities, bought 71.5 million TVX shares at $1.05 apiece.

Pacific Rim Mining and Dayton Mining each dropped 2 pennies on Friday; the day the two announced the completion of their merger. Pac Rim finished at 63 and Placer closed at $1.14. Under the deal, Dayton shareholders will receive 1.76 shares of Pacific Rim for each share held. In the end, Dayton shareholders will hold 70% of the merged company; Pacific Rim shareholders will have 30%.

Headed the other way was Crystallex International dropping 43 or 15.6% to $2.32. The company says it doesn’t expect the military-backed ouster and arrest of President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela to have an impact on its activities (including the La Victoria, Lo Increible and Tomi projects) in that country. Crystallex has had mining operations in Venezuela since 1995.

Inco was the busiest base metal miner falling 42 to $32.23, after it recent ride to a new 2-year high. The share have recently benefited from the raising of the stock to “top pick” from “outperform” by two BMO Nesbitt Burns analysts. The two also hiked their share price target to US$29 from US$25 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Placing a distant second among the base metal miners was Noranda, plus 24 at $18.54, with just 481,894 shares on the go.

Canada’s junior exchange managed to end the week modestly higher despite heavy selling pressure on oil-related issues. The S&P-CDNX Composite Index tacked on 1.04 points, or 0.1% to close at 1157.15.

Macdonald Mines continued to attract the attention of traders, adding 1 to close at 7 on nearly 1.4 million shares. The company has an oil & gas division and has been seeking platinum-palladium ground in Ontario.

ECU Silver ended the week unchanged at 7 on 1.55 million shares. The company holds the Velardena property in Mexico. At last count the property held total resources of 2.5 million tonnes grading 2.8 grams gold and 269 grams silver per tonne.

Gallery Resources ended the week at 10, down a penny on 902,000 shares. The junior is in the midst of a gravity geophysical survey on its Black Bart’s Katie massive sulphide project in central Newfoundland.

Majescor Resources rebounded from its recent sell off, gaining 1 to close at 90 on 313,850 shares. The company holds a big land position in the emerging Otish Mountain diamond area of Quebec.