TSX Venture Exchange October 2-5

After weeks on the up-and-up, the S&P-TSX Venture Composite Index turned slightly bearish during the Oct. 2-5 trading session, losing 15.09 points to close at 2,857.57. Average daily trading volume also sank to 77.7 million shares.

Continuing the bearish trend, more than twice as many companies fell to new lows over the week as climbed to new highs. On the junior board, 59 explorers sank to new share price lows, while only 25 posted new highs.

Despite being halted for most of the week, VMS Ventures dominated trading activity. In the one day plus one hour that the stock was up for grabs, more than 43 million VMS shares changed hands. The share price peaked at $1.29 then fell 23 to close at $1.06, still a 43% gain. The activity followed results from the second hole at the company’s volcanogenic massive sulphide discovery at Reed Lake in Manitoba.

More than 38 million shares of Hawkeye Gold & Diamond were traded over the session, moving the penny stock up 2 by the end of the week. The company has speculated that increased trading volume since mid-September is due to good drill results from Grandview Gold’s Dixie Lake property, which is adjacent to Hawkeye’s Dedee Rhode and Dixie Bell gold properties in northern Ontario.

Another volume and value-gain leader was TTM Resources, which traded 13.9 million shares to close the session up 34 at $1.32. There was no obvious reason for TTM’s activity.

Noront Resources and neighbours MacDonald Mines Exploration and Spider Resources continued to trade high volumes, however news out of the companies’ properties, in the James Bay lowlands of Ontario, was slow.

Shares of Kodiak Exploration moved up 24% to close the session at $1.23 apiece on trading volume of 11.1 million. The company released assay results from the 2007 drill program at the Hercules project, in the Beardmore-Geraldton gold camp in southern Ontario. All 10 drill holes at Hercules hit gold mineralization.

Northern Dynasty Minerals climbed 96 on good volume after announcing significant new drill results from Pebble East, and Exeter Resource moved up 60 on drill results from the Cerro Moro gold project, in Argentina.

SouthGobi Energy Resources lost 46 per share over the week, closing at $6.22, and Salazar Resources saw its stock fall 32 to close at $2.88 per share. Neither company put out any news over the trading session.

Nickel-sulphide intercepts from Liberty Mines’ Hart project, in Ontario, did not seem to impress investors. The stock fell 28, or 11%, to close at $2.37 per share. Similarly, drill results from Full Metal Minerals’ Mount Andrew copper-silver-gold target, on Prince of Wales Island in Alaska, failed to stop a 27 slide over the session; the stock closed at $2.63. And following results from Knight Resources’ West Raglan project, in Quebec, the company’s share price lost 14, closing at 25 apiece.

TSX-V greatest percentage change

		VOLUME(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE		CHANGE
Westward Expl	WWE	90	0.155	0.14	0.155	+	93.7
Threegold Res	THG	1511	0.83	0.38	0.75	+	80.7
Kettle River	KRR	1180	0.31	0.18	0.30	+	66.6
Sanatana Diam	STA	920	0.52	0.39	0.40	+	60.0
Absolut Res	ABS	2212	1.05	0.92	0.96	+	60.0
Wildcat Expl	WEL	5550	0.43	0.22	0.32	+	48.8
VMS Vent	VMS	45180	1.52	1.00	1.06	+	43.2
E-Energy Vent	EEV	7387	0.275	0.155	0.235	+	42.4
Hawkeye Gold	HKO	38148	0.095	0.045	0.07	+	40.0
Northern Shiel	NRN	3390	1.10	0.58	0.76	+	38.1
Knight Res	KNP	6029	0.425	0.225	0.255	–	35.4
VG Gold	VG	22	0.31	0.25	0.29	–	32.5
Latin Am Mnls	LAT	427	0.45	0.32	0.32	–	29.6
Superior Mng	SUI	72	0.45	0.385	0.385	–	28.7
Bishop Gold	BSG	165	0.03	0.005	0.025	–	28.5
Beta Minerals	BMI	179	0.11	0.09	0.09	–	28.0
Grande Portage	GPG	176	0.40	0.29	0.305	–	27.3
Great Sthn Ent	GSR	95	0.045	0.04	0.04	–	27.2
Teryl Res Corp	TRC	97	0.235	0.20	0.20	–	27.2
Solomon Res	SRB	257	0.30	0.225	0.24	–	27.2

TSX-V greatest value change

		VOLUME	CLOSE		CHANGE
Northern Dyn M	NDM	944811	11.87	+	0.96
Exeter Res	XRC	189160	3.75	+	0.60
Ascot Res	AOT	392027	2.40	+	0.50
Keegan Res	KGN	419670	3.45	+	0.45
Energold Drill	EGD	2057038	3.90	+	0.40
AuEx Vent	XAU	211437	2.23	+	0.37
Absolut Res	ABS	2211820	0.96	+	0.36
Andina Mnls	ADM	1025470	3.85	+	0.35
TTM Res	TTQ	13887282	1.32	+	0.34
Threegold Res	THG	1511357	0.75	+	0.335
SouthGobi Engy	SGQ	60267	6.22	–	0.46
Salazar Res	SRL	692518	2.88	–	0.32
Mag Silver	MAG	94049	13.49	–	0.31
Tournigan Gold	TVC	734711	2.40	–	0.29
Liberty Mines	LBE	410998	2.37	–	0.28
Osisko Explora	OSK	739730	5.23	–	0.28
Full Metal Mnl	FMM	363390	2.63	–	0.27
U3O8 Corp	UWE	212449	1.61	–	0.25
Mansfld Mnrls	MDR	802425	4.00	–	0.25
Rockgate Cap	RGT	483677	1.02	–	0.23

TSX-V most active issues

		VOLUME(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE		CHANGE
VMS Vent	VMS	45180	1.52	1.00	1.06	+	0.32
Hawkeye Gold	HKO	38148	0.095	0.045	0.07	+	0.02
MacDonald Mns	BMK	14357	0.30	0.24	0.28	+	0.015
TTM Res	TTQ	13887	1.59	0.97	1.32	+	0.34
Noront Res	NOT	12411	4.00< /td>	3.28	3.55	–	0.05
Plato Gold	PGC	11323	0.135	0.10	0.12	+	0.025
Kodiak Expl	KXL	11105	1.45	1.05	1.23	+	0.24
Spider Res	SPQ	9191	0.105	0.09	0.09	–	0.01
Yukon Zinc	YZC	9103	0.255	0.21	0.225	–	0.025
Sage Gold	SGX	8186	0.235	0.16	0.215	+	0.045