Vancouver Stock Exchange Vancouver Stock Exchange sinks to new lows

In a word; sick, or in two; very sick. The Vancouver stock market is suffering from a case of the jitters and it if had a head coach that person would very likely be looking for another job. The Vancouver Stock Exchange Composite Index hit an all-time low of 668.26 on September 12, for a drop of over 30 points during our reporting period. The Resource Index fared just as poorly, shedding almost 32 points to finish at 708.63.

Unable to blame a head coach, the street points to a number of factors including the on-going Securities Commission case against the management of Prime Resources, and the potential of another nasty expose from an American TV network.

ABC Television’s Prime Time has evidently done a less than flattering piece on the Vancouver Stock Exchange which the network plans to air before the end of the month.

ABC reportedly posed as a group of New York money managers and approached some well known Vancouver promoters with hidden cameras rolling. One hardly needs much of an imagination to guess at a promoter’s response when faced with some “smart” money from far-away eastern United States.

Gold has also been a bane to the market, dropping a further US$10 to US$378 in the absence of any fireworks in the Middle East.

Shareholders of Adrian Resources were in for a wild ride over the period ended September 12, the issue plunging from $3.45 to a low of $1.80 prior to the release of the company’s latest drilling results from the Ski Project located adjacent to the Eskay Creek property.

Following the issue of the assay results, the stock staged a strong rebound back to the $3.00-level.

Prime Resources Group followed the market down, dropping a 1/2 to finish the period at $5 7/8.

Top trading spot was taken by Consolidated Rhodes Resources for the second week in a row with over four million shares traded. The issue bucked the general trend adding a further 57 cents to its share price to finish at $1.53.

The past week’s volume along with the 3.5 million shares traded in the prior week is something of a feat in that there just over two million shares outstanding.

Rhodes is earning a 50% interest an Arizona property owned by Toltec Resources where some good gold values have been intersected.

Toltec’s share price did not fair as well as its partner’s, sliding 16 cents to $1.30 on over 1.7 million shares.

Waterford Resources did well over the period ended Sept. 12, adding over $1.00 to its share price to finish at $1.79. Waterford announced an agreement with private company Tagish Resources. Waterford can earn a 49% interest in Tagish’s Afton 9 claim which replaces the SKI 3, DUP 3, and the IKS 3 mineral claims which the Gold Commissioner cancelled.

The dream appears to be over for Bellex Mining and Quattro Resources as investors awake to the smell of coffee or perhaps in some cases smelling salts.

The market took a few days to digest the companies’ assay results from drilling in the Galore Creek area, finally deciding on a sell-off; Bellex plunging $1.34 to 90 cents and Quattro dropping $4 3/8 to $4.00.