Vancouver Stock Exchange Signs of a downturn at year-end

Wednesday close, Nov 26

The traditional year-end downturn in Vancouver may have arrived. But it might not last long because the Casa Berardi area in Quebec is starting to heat up again and Saskatchewan’s La Ronge belt could follow. One real negative in the market at present is lower gold prices, but brokerage month-end for national houses has also tended to depress things and local firms also could be selling out delinquent accounts in the coming week.

Skyline Explorations was one of the busiest issues this morning, jumping 15 cents to $4. Over our report period the stock rebounded from $2.75 to $3.85. Representing a $1.10 increase. The company recently reported even more visible gold from its Reg property in northern B.C., adding that assays and more detailed information are pending. It appears to be drilling in an ore shoot. Exactly how many of these exist on the property will have to be determined by more drilling and underground development.

Supreme Resources posted a 55 cents gain today, reaching $2.70 in moderate volume. The company has been drilling a quartz zone on its Jed claims near Dease Lake, B.C., which is believed to be the source of placer gold in the region. Territorial Petroleum climbed 10 cents to 54 cents and Sheba Copper was 4 cents better at 50 cents . Both these companies are joint-venturing a gold property near Salmon, Idaho.

Golden Knight was a standout over our report period, rising $2.63 to $14.63. Yesterday alone this stock shot up $2.13. You can’t argue with the success Inco and Golden Knight are having in Casa Berardi. That’s a real gold camp in the making.

Golden Hope, which has three drills operating on its Estrades property at Casa Berardi, was unchanged at $3.25 and Golden Group (also with a piece of the property) was 15 cents lower at $1.80. Teck is operator for the program.

Ceasar Resources was 63 cents stronger at $1.55. The company recently raised funds for an exploration program on its gold property in the Adams Lake area of B.C. Roxana Resources ended the week 50 cents higher at $4.50 after it annou nced plans to drill a carbon dioxide well in New Mexico and Danbus Resources was ahead 35 cents to $1.60. Danbus is considering a diversificaton into non-resource fields.

New listings for the week included: Avenue Resources, Polestar Resources, Vault Explorations, Silver Talon Mines, P.M.C. Technologies (formerly Golden Coin), Consolidated Lone Star Resource Corp., Noront Resources, and Canadian Industrial Minerals (formerly Xanaro Technologies).

VSE Short Positions

The VSE reprts a short position of 5.1 million shares and warrants as of Nov 14. Larger positions included: Quartz Mountain Gold, 402,100; Trader Resource Corp., 149,345; Galactic Resources, 142,500; and Westlake Resources, 139,800.