Trading Summary (December 24, 2003)

There was relatively heavy trading for a Christmas Eve, but the Toronto Stock Exchange finished a shortened trading day little changed. The TSX Composite index was up 1.65 points at 8,136.78.

It was the golds that came best out of the half-day, as the TSX Gold index added 2.55 points to finish at 220.99. Most of the other sector indices were little changed, except for the information-technology stocks and the real-estate sector, both of which fell almost 1%.

Gold closed on the New York market at US$411.80 per oz., after a morning London fixing at US$410.80. Most of the gold equities caught the wave, including Wheaton River Minerals, which was the most active stock on the Exchange Wednesday. Wheaton was up 20 to $3.70 on a volume of 6.2 million shares, leading the golds on percentage gain as well. Silver, Wheaton’s principal product, was up 3.5 to US$5.72 per oz. in the Wednesday London fix.

Close behind Wheaton was Bema Gold, which was up 24 to $4.48 on a volume of just over a million shares.

among the majors, Placer Dome was the big gainer, rising 35 to $22.49, Kinross Gold was up 3 at $10.10, and Barrick Gold was 8 lower at $28.84.

Over on the base-metal side results were mixed, with the TSX Metals and Mining index down 0.44 point at 223.77. Metal prices on the London Metal Exchange were generally higher, with copper closing at US$2,251 per tonne, up US$18.50 from Tuesday’s ring session, and nickel at US$15,800, up about US$310.

Rising copper prices helped Aur Resources remain the lightweight champion of the index, tacking on 13 to close at $6.75, more than double its low-close in July. Among other mid-tiers, Ivanhoe Mines was up 6 at $9.58, Inmet Mining up 6 at $16.26, and nickel producers LionOre Mining International and Sherritt International both gained, LionOre rising a nickel to $8 and Sherritt 4 to $7.14.

On the downside were all three Sudbury nickel producers: Inco was off 69 at $50.70, Falconbridge fell 11 to $30, and new index member FNX Mining slid 23 to $8.50.

Off the index, FNX’s partner Dynatec Mining was one of the most active stocks on the exchange, rising a penny to $1.63 on a volume of 2.7 million shares. Pacific Rim Mining, out from under a 17-million-share block holding that Kinross Gold had held, rose 8 to $1.38.

Canada’s junior exchange surged on the eve before Christmas but declining stocks out paced advancing issues by a 456-to-426 margin. The S&P-TSX Venture Exchange composite index gained 23.05 points, or 1.38%, and closed at 1,689.84.

Investors bid up shares in shell company, Pacific Stratus Ventures. The junior added 10 to close at 62 on nearly 1.6 million shares traded.

Spider Resources ended the day up half a penny at 13.5 with 545,900 shares traded. The junior and joint venture partner, KWG Resources on working their Spider #3 base metal prospect in the James Bay Lowlands of Northern Ontario.

International Northair Mines got a boost following news that trenching on its El Tesoro project in Mexico’s Durango state, returned up to 27 grams gold per tonne over 6 metres. Shares in the company closed at $1.12, up 7 on a volume of 307,800.

JNR Resources moved higher, adding 2.5 and closed at 35 with 303,000 shares traded. JNR recently dealt an option on its Moore Lake and Lazy Edward Bay uranium properties to International Uranium. The prospective project lie in the Athabasca Basin of northern Saskatchewan.