The Toronto market plunged early in the five trading days May 7-13 but rallied to finish the period fractionally higher. The TSX composite index closed May 13 at 6,702.91, up 9.2 points over the previous week.
The golds, in their accustomed fashion, ran against the mainstream of the market, heading up for most of the trading period, then slumping on the Tuesday, May 13, to finish at 159.27, down 3.61 points or just over 2% of value. The slump happened just as London bullion prices were nearing a peak of US$350.75 per oz. in the morning fix on May 13; from there they settled to US$348.90 the following morning.
Kinross Gold took one of the bigger hits, falling $1.20 to close at $8.34 with more than 15 million shares traded. Kinross announced cost-cutting measures, including the layoff of 75 employees, at its Lupin gold mine in Nunavut following “disappointing” first-quarter results there. Disappointment was more widespread, though, as Kinross reported a loss of US$11.2 million on revenues of US$120.1 million for the first quarter.
Barrick Gold, which rose $1.14 to $23.48, bucked the trend, but most of the other major and mid-tier gold producers saw their shares drop: Placer Dome slid 35 to $15.49, Meridian Gold fell 43 to $15.21, Goldcorp slumped 33 to $15.43, Glamis Gold was down 81 to $15.75, and Agnico Eagle Mines backed up 76 to $14.40. New kid Eldorado Gold did better, adding 6 for a close of $2.26.
Off the index, Thistle Mining was up 2 at 57 on a volume of 5.3 million shares. The company announced it had closed its hedge position in rand-denominated gold options for a profit of US$21 million, and immediately applied US$14.4 million to clear off the remaining acquisition debt for its President Steyn mine in South Africa.
Silver producer Wheaton River Minerals gave up 2 to finish at $1.27 with 7.6 million shares moving.
Base metal prices were a little firmer, with copper and zinc both picking up US2 in London Metal Exchange trading to finish the period at US75 and US36, respectively. The TSX metals and mining index, though, was off two points at 119.04.
Nickel lost a penny to finish at US$3.68, and both big nickel producers slid lower: Inco to $26.18, down 98, and Falconbridge to $16.95, down 15. Among smaller nickel producers, Sherritt International fell 3 to $4.05 while LionOre Mining International added a quarter to close at $5.65.
Cameco was down $1.05 at $36.35, though it announced earnings of $37 million on revenues of $103 million, largely from a pretax earning of $49 million from its investment in Ontario electricity utility Bruce Power.
Among the juniors, FNX Mining advanced 5 to $6.60. At presstime, it had just announced the start of mining at the McCreedy West nickel deposit in Sudbury, Ont., which it and Dynatec hold under option from Inco. Dynatec was up 3 at 72.
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