Trading Summary (October 28, 2002)

The Toronto Stock Exchange was marginally better on Monday, with the S&P Composite advancing 13.50 points to 6,419.37 points. Most of the market sectors posted slight increases, but the information technology stocks and the golds — who have rarely moved in the same direction on the same day — both made strong gains.

The gold index was up 4.63 points at 169.15 points, a gain of almost 3% on the day, partly in response to a rising metal price; the London afternoon fix was US$314.45 per oz. and later New York trading added about another dollar.

The only stock in the gold index that didn’t advance was Iamgold, which announced it planned a friendly merger with royalty company Repadre Capital. The combination would see Repadre shareholders get 1.6 shares of Iamgold for each Repadre share, which valued Repadre at $8.48 based on the previous closing prices. Iamgold was off 14 at $5.16 and Repadre advanced 70 to close at $8.

But in general the golds were quiet today, with Barrick Gold up 35 at $24.20, Meridian Gold adding $1.21 to close at $26.21, and Kinross Gold 18 higher at $2.63. Placer Dome, whose president, Jay Taylor, told an earnings conference call last Wednesday that he “can’t believe how the market has priced us,” inched closer to executive expectations, picking up 38 to close at $13.83.

The diversified mining index picked up a fraction of a point to finish at 126.77 points, continuing a modest rebound from early October’s lows. Heavyweight Inco was up 41 at $31.65 while Noranda picked up a quarter to close at $15.

Coal producer Fording picked up another 11 to close at $32.65 following reports that Anglo American may be ready to offer a white-knight bid against Sherritt International and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Fund. Fording had indicated plans to turn itself into an income trust after Sherritt’s bid last week, which is for $29 per share.

Canada’s junior exchange started the trading week off in familiar fashion — by losing ground. The Venture Exchange’s S&P Composite Index closed down 3.27 points, or 0.36%, to 900.76.

Pan Asia Mining continued to dominate the trading floor, gaining 2 to close at 5 on nearly 1.6 million shares. The company has not maintained the requirements for a Tier 1 company listing on the exchange and has had its classification changed to a Tier 2 level.

Making a nice percentage move, Golden Goliath Resources added 8 to close at 25 on 354,000 shares. The junior recently cut encouraging gold-silver values from a reverse circulation drilling on the Corona property at the western end of the large Uruachic camp in Mexico.

National Gold ended the day unchanged at 30 on 245,000 shares. The junior inked a merger deal with Alamos Minerals. Under the deal, shareholders of Alamos will receive one share of Alamos Gold for every two shares of Alamos held and shareholders of National will receive one share of Alamos Gold for every 2.352 common shares of National held. The companies are joint venture partners on the Salamandra gold property in Mexico. Alamos ended the day down 2 at 43 on a volume of 47,000.

Cardero Resources hit another new 52-week high, surging 8 to close at $1.25 on 58,100 shares. Last month the company acquired the Olaroz silver project 230 km from the city of San Salvador de Jujuy in the province of Jujuy, northwestern Argentina. The focus of the project is the La Providencia silver deposit and the area surrounding it.