Trading Summary (September 06, 2002)

Profit taking late in the day helped the Toronto Stock Exchange end 5.19 points lower at 6,479.75 on Friday. Investors cashed in their gold stocks sending the TSX’s gold index down 2.03 points to 194.15 points, even with the yellow metal tacking on US$1.50 to reach US$319.90 per oz. in New York. The base metal miners escaped with a 0.18-point loss to hit 114.94.

Leading a raft of gold issues lower was Kinross Gold, off a penny at $3.40 with more than 10 million shares changing hands. Apollo Gold ended unchanged at $2.50 on about 2.5 million shares to make a rare appearance on the TSX’s top ten traded list. Barrick Gold fell 25 to $25.70; GoldCorp lost 19 to settle at $16.92; and Placer Dome shed 40 to $16.40.

South American Gold and Copper returned much of Thursday’s gain, falling a penny to 5.5. The company is dusting off its Pimenton gold mine 174 km northeast of Santiago, Chile.

Alcan found 31 to make $40.15 with about 860,000 shares traded. The Montreal-based aluminum giant has inked a letter of intent to sell its moulded glass operations in Missouri, New Jersey and its 46%-owned joint venture in Beijing to Glass Group Inc. Alcan also plans to close its Burntisland, U.K., chemicals plant, resulting in a loss of 370 jobs.

Others on the rise were: Inco, plus 40 to $27.17; Teck Cominco’s B series, up a dime to $10.35; Aur Resources, a nickel higher at $3.25; Ivanhoe Mines grabbed a penny to make $2.96: and LionOre Mining International made 5 to reach $3.65.