Toronto Stock Exchange: Inco’s Phillips sheds presidency role,

As Inco chairman Donald Phillips announced this week that he is relinquishing the title of president to Michael Sopko, the nickel miner’s vice-president of human resources, an 11-day rally continued without pause.

Spurred on by lower interest rates and a lemming-like urge on the part of investors to get in on the action, the Toronto composite 300 index rose to 3,519.24, its highest level since Aug. 2, 1990.

The 14.46 point increase today, Feb. 13, didn’t compare with some of the gains seen over the past two weeks. But as an above average volume of 26.3 million shares changed hands, market watchers are now wondering when investors will stop for a breather.

“This is a very powerful market and expectations of lower interest rates means there is still some upside,” said John Ing, an analyst at Maison Placements Canada in Toronto.

One of the most noticeable features of this particular market upturn has been the surge toward the bluest of the blue chip metal stocks.

While most of the precious metals and junior stocks have lagged, the big base metal issues like Inco, Noranda, Cominco and Rio Algom have surged ahead on the crest of the rally. Today’s 12 cent increase in the price of Inco shares took the issue up $1.75 over the week. While Phillips stays on as chairman, the Sopko appointment is part of a management reshuffle that includes executive Vice-President Walter Curlook. At 61, Curlook has been named vice-chairman of environmental affairs.

However, while this week’s US$6 per oz. increase in the price of gold is unlikely to excite anyone, gains in the precious metals sector pushed the gold-silver index up 73.17 points to 5322.28.

Equipped with a royalty interest in American Barrick Resources’ Goldstrike property in Nevada, Franco-Nevada has been one of the few strong performers in the gold sector. It added 37 cents today.

A consistent leader in the volume leagues, Corona A shares has made some modest gains on speculation that it is close to cutting a deal with Placer Dome relating to the Eskay Creek project in British Columbia. After bottoming recently at $3.50, Corona closed up 5 cents at $4.85.

According to Central Crude, the soft gold price (US$366.75) is one reason why it is unable to raise $7.7 million for its Eagle River and Moss Lake projects in Ontario. Financing was supposed to consist of flow-through and common share units priced at $4.50 and $4 respectively. Today, Central Crude shares were up 10 cents to $3.20.

No such problems for Freewest Resources which hit a new high of $3.60 this week. However, any upswing in the price of Freewest shares is bad news for Noranda if the big company elects to exercise an option on two million Freewest shares at market prices.

Meanwhile, LAC Minerals agreed this week to pay $4.11 a share for the 35.3% stake in Bond International Gold it doesn’t already own. That is almost $6 a share less than the amount paid when LAC bought the initial 65% stake in Bond in late 1989. LAC was a winner today, gaining 12 cents.

In other news, Metall Mining, up 12 cents, is hoping to raise $65 million by issuing five million units consisting of one common share and one share purchase warrant at $13 a unit.

Scintilore Explorations decided this week that it couldn’t win a court fight for the 283,000 oz. per year David Bell mine at Hemlo, Ont., because the legal status of the claims it was contesting had changed. In 1989, the Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines had issued patents indicating outright ownership of the contested claims to joint owners Teck and Corona.

TSE Short Positions

Semi-monthly reports as of Jan. 31, showed 24,502,868 shares of 605 issues compared with 25,509,276 shares of 634 issues on Jan. 15.

Larger individual positions included:

Amer. Barrick 208,116, up 104,114; Belmoral Res. 81,000, up 44,500; Bema Gold 158,100; Bow Valley 140,365; Campbell Res, 29,000, up 29,000; Chauvco Res. 75,400, up 25,700; Claude Res. 57,200; Echo Bay 7,604; down 169,213; Galactic Res. 58,977; Hemlo Gold 640,000, up 125,300; Inco Ltd. 113,553, up 69,253; LAC Min. 54,994, up 23,994; Metall Mng. 30,640, dow 92,730; Minnova 39,500; down 53,000; Noranda 177,050, up 102,550; Pagasus Gold, 39,945, up 37,945; Placer Dome 46,100, up 26,790; Platinova Res. 22,000, down 43,500; Potash Corp of Sask. 187,100; Sceptre 73,700, down 259,000; Thunderwood 61,500; TVX Gold 22,400, up 22,400.