Trading Summary (December 12, 2001)

The Toronto Stock Exchange gained 46.07 points to end Wednesday at 7,577.7. The Communications sector helped out with a 1.35% gain on the back of upbeat earnings guidance from giant BCE. A weaker U.S. dollar sent investors to the gold stocks, which led the house with a 2.2% gain to 4,869.46. The base metal issues slid 1.75 points to end at 4,084.59.

Diamond miner Tahera made a surprise appearance as the country’s busiest miner gaining a penny to 16 or about 2.8 million shares. On Wednesday, Tahera announced that a kimberlite float sample found west of the Jericho pipe has proved to be diamondiferous. Barrick Gold was next in line with just less than 2.7 million shares traded. The issue climbed 55 to $24.45.

Among the remaining gold majors: Placer Dome gained 33 to $16.84; Kinross Gold rose 4 to $1.03; TVX Gold shed a penny to 59 and Franco-Nevada Mining gained 38 to $22.35. Normandy Mining added a nickel to hit $14.20.

Decent percentage gainers among the smaller producers were: Goldcorp, up 4.6% to $18.05; Glamis Gold, 2.7% higher at $5.75; Iamgold up 5% to $3.80; NovaGold added 5.7% to hit $1.85; and Hope Bay Gold soared almost 12% to 19.

McWatters Mining plummeted 2 or 23.5% to 6.5. On Wednesday, McWatters filed a plan of reorganization aimed at getting its debt under control and returning the Sigma-Lamaque open-pit gold mine in Val d’Or, Que., back into production.

Teck Cominco was the most actively traded base metal issues gaining 35 to $12 on about 938,000 shares. Most of the others didn’t fare as well. Inco fell 22 to $25.43; Falconbridge lost a penny to $15.45; Alcan dropped 4 to $57.60. Small gains were seen by Noranda, up a dime to $14.17 and Aur Resources, a dime higher at $3.

Saved by yet another late day surge, Canada’s junior exchange rallied to end the day virtually unchanged on moderate volume. The S&P-CDNX Composite Index ended the session up 0.30 point to close at 997.10.

Poplar Resources popped back onto investors’ radar screens moving up 5 to close at 16 on 305,600 shares. Additional drill results are expected shortly from the company’s 100% owned Bottenbacken polymetallic project in Sweden.

First Point Minerals lost 4 to end the day at 16 on 165,000 shares. The junior recently tabled some encouraging widths of low-grade gold material from trenching on its Cacamuya property in Honduras.

Sultan Minerals ended flat at 26 on 120,000 shares. The company is currently drilling the Gold Mountain zone on its Kena gold property near Nelson, BC.

Altius Minerals climbed 10 to end the session at 90 on a light 18,000 shares. The junior tabled a $200,000 financing comprising 200,000 flow-through units priced at $1 each. The company also recently granted Barrick Gold the right to earn up to a 75% stake in its Botwood Basin gold project in Newfoundland. Barrick will be looking for “Carlin-Type” gold deposits on the property.