Trading Summary (September 18, 2002)

The Toronto Stock Exchange was swept 87.49 points lower by a tide of red ink on Wednesday. The Composite Index ended at 6,304.77 points. The golds dropped 1.31 points to 199, while the Diversified Metals & Mining index shed 1.53 points to 112.59. The telecom sector was alone in black, gaining 0.31 of a point to 42.52.

Contract miner Dynatec made a rare appearance on the TSX’s top ten traded list shooting up 9 or more than 12% to 80 on nearly 3.1 million shares. On Wednesday, Dynatec and partner FNX Mining reported that ongoing drilling continues to cut wide zones of copper-rich massive sulphide mineralization at the Norman property, near Sudbury, Ont. For their part, FNX shares gained 33 or more than 6% to make $5.73, a new 52-week high.

Wheaton River Minerals joined Dynatec with a surprise appearance dropping a nickel to $1.27 on about 2.5 million shares.

Canada’s big three gold producers made the list as well: Kinross Gold led the way ending unchanged at $3.54 on a volume of about 6.7 million shares; Barrick Gold dropped 42 to $26.67; and Placer Dome gained 32 to make $16.62.

Placer is one of three issues that will have its relative weight changed on the S&P/TSX Composite and S&P/TSX 60 index. The relative weight of Placer and Telus will increase by 0.06% in the Composite index and by 0.09% in the S&P/TSX 60 index. Manulife’s relative weight will fall by 0.08% in the Composite and 0.11% in the 60 index. The changes reflect the quarterly update to the float shares of the companies.

Alcan was at the head of the base metal class, falling 77 to $39.70 on more than 1.7 million shares. Most of the others did about as well. Putting in plus-2% losses were: Noranda, 39 poorer at $15.56; Inco, off 53 to $25.77; and uranium miner Cameco, down $1.08 at $27.72. Inco’s recently announced offering of 30-year bonds has been boosted by US$100 million to US$400 million.

Canada’s junior exchange continued to flirt with yearly lows as investors found little reason to buy stocks. The TSX-Venture composite index gained 0.06 of a point to close at 996.27.

National Gold managed to hold onto most of its recent gains following the announcement that a scoping study indicates that the Estrella gold zone on the Salamandra gold property in Mexico could be economic at US$300 per oz gold by implementing a 100,000 oz per year operation. Stock in the junior slipped 1 to close at 36 on 242,500 shares.

Anooraq Resources rebounded somewhat from its sell-off over the past week, adding 6 to close at 59 on 232,100 shares. The Hunter Dickinson-led company has been awaiting additional results from joint venture partner African Minerals on the Rietfontaine nickel-platinum-palladium property in South Africa. The latest results from hole 3 continued to show low-grade values.

Donner Minerals dropped a penny to close at 11 on 313,500 shares. Stock in the junior has been sold off recently after Falconbridge announced drill results from its South Voiseys Bay nickel property in Labrador.

Amarc Resources hit a new 52-week low after releasing the results from a 14 holes drill program into the Inde gold project in Mexico. Erratic results include a high of 10 grams gold per tonne over 2 metres in hole 9. Shares in the junior ended the day at 20, down 3 on volume of 186,600.