Montreal Exchange Orex gains ground

A quiet week on the Montreal Exchange saw most resource issues lose ground with junior issues suffering the most from the lack of interest in the market.

An indication of the weaker interest in junior exploration companies is the most active issue list where senior issues such as Noranda, Inco and Falconridge traded more heavily than the juniors, despite prices that are up to 100 times greater per share.

Noranda was the most active issue, although it slipped 78 cents to close at $22.25. It traded 346,100 shares. Inco was next at 239,900 shares while it fell $1.75 to $34.50. Falconbridge traded 227,200 shares and was unchanged at $22.

Audrey Resources came off dramatically, closed at $2.50 for a 42 cents drop on 59,900 shares. While it has a pretty good looking operation going near Rouyn-Noranda, production will be interrupted for almost a year while the company builds its own mill at a cost of $24 million.

Audrey produces copper, zinc, gold and silver at the Mobrun mine. The prices of all those commodities are doing pretty well, but the shutdown wasn’t received well by shareholders.

Exploration Orex has been getting some good intersections from its property in Nova Scotia. No results have come out recently, but the stock moved up 7 cents to close at $1.55 on 53,400 shares.

Ste. Genevieve continues to languish. This high flyer has been having trouble getting off the ground recently. This week it touched its year low of $1.55, closing down 9 cents at $1.65 on 125,800 shares. Its high over the last 12 months was $10.25.

Tandem Resources was unchanged at 37 cents on 106,500 shares. It has a number of good properties on the go, but with the generally slow markets, it too, is having trouble. There were some difficulties reported from the Moss Lake project it’s running with Storimin Resources, but that has apparently been resolved.

Stratmin gained 13 cents on 113,700 shares to close at $1.45, near its 12-month high of $1.65.