Toronto Stock Exchange -Feb. 16-22

The TSX composite index finished the Feb. 16-22 period slightly higher as markets were still digesting the U.S. Federal Reserve’s surprise raising of the discount rate.

While the Fed argues that a rising discount rate does not equal monetary tightening, investors were in a wait-and-see pattern until hearing from Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke.

The actions of the Fed took some of the steam out of what had been a bullish period for commodities and commodity related stocks.

Oil broke the US$80 a barrel mark and gold reached a one-month high of US$1,130 per oz. before pulling back and finishing the period at US$1,115 per oz. But such pricing strength didn’t find its way through to gold miners as evidenced by the Global Gold index finishing the period flat at 319 points.

The diversified miners fared slightly better. Higher copper, aluminum, nickel, tin, lead and zinc prices helped bolster miners with the Capped Metals & Mining index climbing 40 points for the period to finish at 1,034.12. The Global Base Metal index also finished higher. It was up 4 points to 138.29.

Miners that benefited the most were First Quantum, up $6.75; Inmet Mining, up $2.20 and Teck which saw its A class shares gain $1.87 while its B class shares gained $1.85 to finish the period at $39.72.

Uranerz Energy continued its steady march upward since releasing a resource estimate of its Doughstick project in Wyoming. The company gained 40% over the period to finish at $1.99. On Jan. 28, the company announced the project had a measured and indicated resource of 967,883 lbs. of U₃O₈ at an average grade of 0.082% and an inferred resource of 87,981 lbs. U₃O₈ at an average grade of 0.055%.

PC Gold’s share price jumped higher after releasing drill results from its Pickle Crow gold mine. The company’s shares were up 28% to 64¢ for the period after it said deep drilling below workings at the mine cut the main vein structure 210 metres below the lowest mined level. The assay also returned the highest-grade gold intersection on record for the structure with a highlight intercept of 134.26 grams gold over 3.2 metres.

And First Uranium continued on its downward trajectory. The company began to slide at the beginning of February after it lost an environmental permit for one of its tailings dams. The release of its fourth quarter results this period failed to reverse the company’s fortunes as it lost another 15% to finish at $1.21.

First Uranium lost $14.4 million or 9¢ in the final quarter of last year compared to a profit of $1.3 million or 1¢ per share for the same period the year previous.

TSX most active issues
		VOLUME		WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Eastern Platin	ELR	31674	1.41	1.30	1.31	+ 0.03
Equinox Minls	EQN	21689	3.55	3.27	3.45	-0.04
Yamana Gold	YRI	21152	11.56	10.89	10.90	-0.31
Barrick Gold	ABX	19555	41.67	39.01	40.07	+ 1.33
Crew Gold	CRU	18621	0.23	0.17	0.23	+ 0.02
Teck B	TCKB	17461	40.41	38.59	39.72	+ 1.85
New Gold	NGD	17379	5.14	4.67	4.68	-0.11
Timminco	TIM	16622	1.49	1.08	1.20	+ 0.13
Lundin Mng	LUN	15909	4.53	4.26	4.50	+ 0.20
First Uranium	FIU	13706	1.43	1.07	1.21	-0.22

TSX greatest percentage change
		VOLUME		WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Uranerz Energy	URZ	550	2.10	1.49	1.99	+ 39.1
Niocan Inc	NIO	40	0.34	0.27	0.34	+ 30.7
PC Gold	PKL	1627	0.71	0.50	0.64	+ 28.0
Chariot Res	CHD	9655	0.57	0.46	0.55	+ 19.5
Jinshan Gold M	JIN	5298	3.91	3.26	3.81	+ 17.5
Mercator Mnls	ML	12654	2.93	2.42	2.78	+ 15.3
Talon Metals	TLO	52	0.40	0.34	0.40	+ 14.2
Zazu Metals	ZAZ	112	0.35	0.29	0.33	+ 13.7
Intl Nickel Vn	INV	124	0.91	0.80	0.90	+ 12.5
Ur-Energy	URE	751	0.90	0.79	0.90	+ 12.5
First Uranium	FIU	13706	1.43	1.07	1.21	-15.3
Aeroquest Intl	AQL	349	0.64	0.50	0.50	-15.2
Sierra Minls	SIM	527	0.34	0.27	0.29	-14.7
Vista Gold	VGZ	103	2.59	2.09	2.13	-14.4
Ursa Major Min	UMJ	1067	0.14	0.11	0.12	-14.2
Virgin Metals	VGM	881	0.07	0.05	0.06	-14.2
Inspiration Mg	ISM	1446	0.38	0.31	0.33	-13.1
Zincore Mtls	ZNC	590	0.25	0.20	0.20	-13.0
Thundermin Res	THR	300	0.17	0.14	0.14	-12.5
Opta Minls	OPM	11	1.34	1.20	1.20	-12.4

TSX greatest value change
WEEK
		VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
First Quantum	FM	3532295	81.15	+ 6.75
Inmet Mining	IMN	1692323	60.25	+ 2.20
Teck A	TCKA	10380	40.52	+ 1.87
Teck B	TCKB	17460891	39.72	+ 1.85
Russell Metals	RUS	2167172	19.20	+ 1.72
Labdr I-Ore Ro	LIF_U	245891	48.01	+ 1.51
Major Drilling	MDI	358231	26.67	+ 1.46
Cameco Corp	CCO	4611067	30.46	+ 1.39
Barrick Gold	ABX	19554933	40.07	+ 1.33
Newmont Mng	NMC	33378	50.00	+ 1.09
Seabridge Gold	SEA	291998	23.94	-2.36
Pan Am Silver	PAA	1566530	22.47	-1.12
Agnico-Eagle	AEM	4041781	60.42	-1.05
Franco-Nevada	FNV	1221016	27.01	-0.49
Silver Std Res	SSO	626252	18.23	-0.45
Minefinders	MFL	647037	10.26	-0.44
Vista Gold	VGZ	103435	2.13	-0.36
Exeter Res	XRC	706428	8.37	-0.35
NovaGold Res	NG	1669167	6.10	-0.33
Quadra Mng	QUA	4156866	14.91	-0.31