Toronto Stock Exchange Oct. 16-22

After the gains in recent weeks, it was natural enough for the Toronto Stock Exchange to lose some ground during the reporting period Oct. 16-22. The TSX Composite Index fell back 1.3% of value, or 187.68 points, to 14,043.60 over the five trading days.

Just as naturally, the stocks that had risen the fastest fell the fastest, too. The TSX Global Gold Index was down 16.49 points, just over 5% of value, to 302.08, while the TSX Metals and Mining Index slid almost 6%, down 55.25 points to 874.43. Among mining stocks, there were about three decliners for every advancing stock during the session.

The pullback’s timing may have had something to do with metal prices, which mostly fell during the same period, but many of the big percentage declines in the precious metals sector — Newmont Mining down $2.61 at $43.97, Barrick Gold down $2.38 at $39.65, and Agnico-Eagle Mines down $2.12 at $52 — looked like pure profit-taking in stocks that were near their 52-week highs. Still, on the base metal side, several big losers had one thing in common: copper, which fell US$385 to US$7,900 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange. Inmet Mining dropped $10.87 to $93.96, First Quantum Minerals slid $8.25 to $91, and Teck Cominco B-shares fell $4.01 to $46.20.

The market may not have liked copper, but it sure liked a couple of copper intersections: Imperial Metals rose $1.46 to $16.06 on the strength of two drill holes at the Red Chris copper project in British Columbia. One hole ran 1.01% copper, 1.3 grams gold and 3.9 grams silver per tonne over 1,024 metres, while the second ran 0.4% copper, 0.4 gram gold and 3.1 grams silver over 996 metres. The longer intersection was from a deep hole on the deposit’s East Zone, and the shorter from a deep hole on its Main Zone.

Yamana Gold was the most actively traded of the gold stocks, falling 43 on a volume of 78 million shares to $13.19. Meridian Gold, down $1.32 to $36.20, and Northern Orion Resources, down 14 to $7.25, fell in lockstep with Yamana. The merged company handed out new titles in the corner offices but also kept its entire exploration and operations staff in Meridian’s Reno and Santiago offices.

Brazilian gold miner Jaguar Mining said that the opening of a data room for other gold producers to take a look didn’t mean a transaction was in the works, but the market still liked the idea. Jaguar was up $1.37 at $11.03.

UEX gained $1.25 to close at $7.85 on news that it and partner Areva Resources had intersected a 33.7-metre-long zone grading 4.73% U3O8 on the Anne deposit, part of the Shea Creek project on the western edge of the Athabasca basin in Saskatchewan. A second hole graded 1.24% U3O8 over 11.4 metres.

Ontex Resources was 8 better at 34, announcing that it had no material developments. Ontex’s Brookbank gold deposit, west of Geraldton, Ont., recently returned a 2-metre intersection grading 7.8 grams gold per tonne.

TSX most active issues

		VOLUME(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Yamana Gold	YRI	77681	13.98	12.83	13.19	-0.43
Breakwater Res	BWR	47070	3.10	2.59	2.65	-0.47
Kinross Gold	K	39388	16.78	15.67	16.34	-0.39
Uranium One	UUU	27943	11.53	10.47	11.17	+0.34
Equinox Minls	EQN	25907	4.65	4.25	4.43	-0.06
Miramar Mng	MAE	24857	6.39	6.25	6.28	-0.08
Eastern Platin	ELR	24250	2.69	2.45	2.56	-0.05
Eldorado Gold	ELD	19840	6.85	6.13	6.23	-0.61
Goldcorp	G	19764	32.40	29.03	30.38	-1.95
Barrick Gold	ABX	17803	42.03	39.10	39.65	-2.38

TSX greatest percentage change

		VOLUME(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Coalcorp wt	CCJ_T	1350	0.70	0.30	0.57	+83.8
Ascendant Copp	ACX	1377	0.26	0.18	0.23	+31.4
Goldbelt Res	GLD	9179	1.52	1.14	1.51	+31.3
Ontex Res	ONT	3138	0.45	0.23	0.34	+30.7
Malaga	MLG	1482	0.65	0.48	0.60	+20.0
UEX Corp	UEX	12201	8.90	6.31	7.85	+18.9
Campbell Res	CCH	4372	0.145	0.125	0.145	+16.0
Anaconda Mng	ANX	1620	0.85	0.65	0.75	+15.3
Jaguar Mng	JAG	1407	11.21	9.33	11.03	+14.1
Global Copper	GLQ	371	3.80	3.25	3.80	+13.7
New Gold wt	NGD_T	44	0.09	0.07	0.07	-22.2
Starfield Res	SRU	6872	1.65	1.31	1.31	-21.5
Nevoro	NVR	356	0.66	0.50	0.51	-21.5
Moydow Mns Int	MOY	45	0.30	0.25	0.25	-19.3
Cline Mng	CMK	866	0.32	0.25	0.27	-18.1
Canadn Royalts	CZZ	3809	3.61	2.90	2.93	-17.4
Rubicon Mnrls	RMX	2264	2.23	1.72	1.80	-17.0
Norsemont Mng	NOM	1321	2.77	2.32	2.41	-15.4
Premier Gold M	PG	355	2.52	2.15	2.20	-15.3
Moto Gold Mine	MGL	1375	3.07	2.54	2.57	-15.1

TSX greatest value change

		VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
Major Drilling	MDI	784932	57.50	+2.75
Imperial Metal	III	605079	16.06	+1.46
Horizns G Bear	HGD	1321726	15.13	+1.38
Jaguar Mng	JAG	1407205	11.03	+1.37
UEX Corp	UEX	12201294	7.85	+1.25
Fording C C T	FDG_U	2046684	39.71	+1.08
MMX Min e Met	XMM	172457	19.75	+0.90
Alcan	AL	8992287	98.85	+0.54
Frontera Coppr	FCC	1159872	7.27	+0.53
Dundee Prec Mt	DPM	368099	9.50	+0.51
Inmet Mining	IMN	2443237	93.96	-10.87
First Quantum	FM	3741844	91.00	-8.25
Teck Comin B	TCKB	11764869	46.20	-4.01
Royal Gold	RGL	24384	29.90	-3.60
Silver Std Res	SSO	510215	35.62	-3.01
Horizns G Bull	HGU	1385808	23.94	-2.68
Newmont Mng	NMC	185110	43.97	-2.61
Barrick Gold	ABX	17802712	39.65	-2.38
NovaGold Res	NG	1641570	16.25	-2.35
Agnico-Eagle	AEM	4131232	52.00	-2.12