Toronto Stock Echange Buying surge feflects support at 3,200 pts

Buyers stepped in today to help stop a slide which was coming close to testing the technically-important 3,200-pt level. A 37.22-pt rally today moved the composite index to 3,279.24 pts.

Unfortunately, most of the ground gained came on a small volume of 18.6 million shares. The buying appears to be coming primarily from institutions and professional traders, with retail clients remaining on the sidelines; still cautious and liquid.

Until a clear direction as to the trend of interest rates and inflation emerges, small investors are likely to stay away from equities.

Gold bullion remained steady at $433(US) per oz on the second London fix — up from $429 at last week’s closing fix. The gold and silver index got a 64-pt shot in the arm to close at 6,201.39 pts. Metals and minerals also responded to the buying spree, closing at 2,959.32 pts.

American Barrick Resources edged up to $22 from $21.25. Lac Minerals was also better at $13.38. Officials at Corona Corp. accuse Lac of being the driving force behind the Scintilore Explorations legal actions at Hemlo. Scintilore, borrowing a page from promotor Charles Stuart, has restaked the David Bell mine at Hemlo. Corona has a 50% stake in that mine.

Scintilore, which crashed to $3.10 two weeks ago, surged back to $5.50 before closing down at $4.80. (Several months ago, Stuart tried to restake the Golden Giant mine at Hemlo for a junior Alberta-listed company). Investors are obviously dismissing the Scintilore action as a stunt. Corona’s A share gained a quarter to $9.50.

Foiled more times than it cares to remember, Noranda Inc. has acquired control of Falconbridge Ltd. the easy way — on the open market. This week additional purchases pushed Noranda’s stake to the 20% mark. One thing is certain here, Noranda will not be content merely holding a marketable security. Look for changes at Falconbridge, which was up at $22.88. Noranda picked up a $1 to close at $23.50.

Falconbridge competitor Inco Ltd., made a tidy $3 gain to $38.13. The company is expected to earn between $5-$7 per share this year from remarkably strong nickel prices.

While the big companies have been generally resilient to the current bear market, their small capitalized cousins have not. For another week, a nother pack of juniors tested new low territory. MVP Capital, which is paying big dollars for a high cost placer gold operation in Alaska, continued heading south to 68 cents before climbing back to 72 cents .

Much touted Aur Resources was also a loser, touching a new low of $4.25 before recovering to $4.45. La Fosse Platinum, which flirted with new lows all month, popped to $1.25 on talk of a high grade gold and uranium discovery north of Schefferville, Que. The issue backed off to $1 today. Sources say that the assays come from float, not outcrop.

Tightly-held Metalore Resources surged to $42 before coming back to $36.75. The company is busy with a new gold discovery on a wholly-owned property adjacent to its Brookbank project near Beardmore, Ont. The issue rarely trades more than a few thousand shares per day and is firmly in the hands of its president and close associates.

Investors didn’t seem very enthused with the takeover of Baron Oil by Mineral Resources International which dipped to $4.05. The company is better known for its Nanisivik high grade zinc mine in the Arctic.

Sleepy Cassiar Mining made a healthy $1 advance during the week to $3.95. The company, which is involved with the unglamourous commodity, asbestos, also has some excellent financial underpinnings which the market is just now recognizing. It’s operations are making money and the company has working capital in excess of $30 million.