STOCK MARKETS — Bank rate jump causes 300 index to plummet

The Toronto Stock Exchange 300 composite index dropped 94.36 points March 29 to 4,393.61, its largest single-day loss since Feb. 4. The selloff was triggered by a two-thirds-of-a-percentage-point jump in the Bank of Canada rate to 5.64%. This eighth consecutive increase apparently triggered many investors to switch from stocks to fixed-income treasury bill funds.

Gold bullion prices were slightly lower on the week, with the London afternoon fix pegged at $387.15.

Most of the gold stocks were flat, with the exception of American Barrick, which closed up $1.13 to $35.25, and Placer Dome, which gained 75 cents to finish at $34.38.

Junior gold miner St Andrew Goldfields finally cracked the $1 plateau after languishing in the 85-95 cents range for the past several months. The issue closed at $1.01, up 6 cents on the week.

Greater Lenora continues to gain ground, hitting a new 52-week high of $3 before closing at $2.90. The stock leapt 15 cents on the week, with more than 11,000 shares changing hands. The company recently sold a net smelter royalty interest in its Saskatchewan-based Goldfields project to Franco-Nevada for $2 million.

On a sour note, financial woes continue to plague shares of Denison Mines as both classes of preferreds and the two classes of common shares hit new 52-week lows. Denison’s 9.5% preferred shares plummeted $6 to close at 50 cents. The 9.75% preferreds didn’t fare any better, closing down $5.88 to finish at 63 cents. The Class A and Class B shares dropped 22 cents and 24 cents, respectively, to close at 12 cents and 10 cents. The trading activity comes on the heels of a ruling by an arbitration panel regarding a dispute between the company and Ontario Hydro. Denison was seeking about $360 million as a result of the supply contract dispute; it ended up receiving only $30.5 million. Denison is currently seeking amicable solutions with its corporate creditors.

Meanwhile, Denison’s controlling shareholder, Roman, also lost ground, closing down 21 cents to $2.26.

Despite encouraging drill results at the Daigle Lake gold property near Yellowknife, N.W.T., Nebex Resources lost 30 cents to close at $1.65 on the week.

Gitennes, also active in the Territories, lost ground, closing down 10 cents to close at 75 cents. The company is considering merging with Vancouver-listed Kenrich Mining and Ambergate Explorations.

Bucking the general downward trend of the Toronto market was Channel Resources. The company’s stock rose 35 cents to close at $3. Channel is exploring for gold in Burkina Faso, West Africa. With a large land position and sufficient funds for exploration, the company will reportedly start exploring four properties in April or May.

Montreal-listed Chesbar Resources also showed signs of life as the stock added 20 cents to close at $1.05. Chesbar and joint-venture partner VenCan Gold are exploring La Salle, a concession in the Anacoco region of Venezuela. VenCan was unchanged on the week.

Altai Resources lost 62 cents to close at $1.80 on a volume of 467,600 shares. The company is negotiating with a Canadian major to place into production the placer portion of its Chimu project in Peru.

Bema Gold, another junior active in Latin America, dropped 39 cents to $2.91. The loss comes despite the fact that the company’s Refugio gold project in Chile was given the green light by Cyprus Amax Minerals (parent to Bema’s partner on the project, Amax Gold). The deposit has minable reserves of 112 million tons grading 0.03 oz. gold per ton.

Diamond explorer Ashton Mining of Canada jumped 53 cents to close at $2.48 on a volume of 451,300 shares. Ashton recently intersected three kimberlites on its Cross property in the Territories. The project is a joint venture with Tenajon Resources and Pure Gold Resources, which tacked on 10 cents to finish the week at 63 cents on a volume of almost 9.5 million shares. Another junior diamond explorer to gain ground was Radisson Mining Resources, which added 4 cents to close at 44 cents. The company has negotiated a private placement of nearly $2.5 million for exploration on its diamond project in the Central African Republic.