Vancouver Stock Exchange Blue chips draw away from pennies

Although volume in Vancouver is still quite respectable, trading ranges for stocks have been fairly narrow, with a few exceptions. Not surprisingly, last year’s market crash has made it difficult for speculative investors; margin requirements are generally tougher and there are plenty of blue chip bargains around which has tended to draw people away from the so-called “penny stocks.”

The vse has been making an effort to curb some of the obvious abuses in the market here, without, of course, killing the goose that lays the golden egg. And, with the “soul searching” the tse is doing over listing speculative issues, Vancouver should have no problem hanging onto its market niche. Computerized trading will also bolster its position.

By presstime, the index was down 2.6 points to 1093.7 and declining issues were slightly ahead of advances. Yesterday’s volume was 15.7 million shares which isn’t too bad.

Among the more active issues today were newly-listed Eagle Pass Resources (formerly Berle) and Gladstone Resources. They traded at 68 cents and 45 cents respectively in volumes of 1.1 million and 518,000 shares. Pezim Group companies have tended to dominate the market lately and today was no exception. Destiny Resources climbed 26 cents to $1.11 in moderate volume. The latest results from its Windjammer project near Timmins included 17.4 ft of 0.25 oz gold and 8.2 ft grading 0.24 oz. Pezgold Resources, which has a large land position in the Carlin belt, was 15 cents stronger at $2.35 and International Corona was up 38 cents to $8.25.

Over our report period, Racer Resources posted one of the largest increases, an 85 cents rise to $3.35. It was also the second largest trader wit h a volume of 995,500 shares. At last report the company was drilling its Richmond Basin property in Arizona. Golden Dragon, which plans to spend at least $173,000 on its La Peltrie Twp. property in Quebec this year, was the volume leader with a turnover of approximately 1.7 million shares. The stock closed the week at 47 cents .

Skyline Resources recovered a bit of lost ground, gaining 88 cents to $10.75 and Delaware Resources, which also has a significant gold discovery near Skyline, jumped 61 cents to $9.25. American Pacific Mining, which purchased the El Mochito mine in Honduras from Amax and is now increasing production to over 2,000 tons per day, shot up 75 cents to $3.40.