Trading Summary (November 27, 2002)

Toronto stocks built on a higher open to end Wednesday’s trading session at 6,604.25 points, 126.48 points or nearly 2% up on Tuesday’s close. The Gold Index, one of just two declining subindices, slipped 1.02 points to 164.69 as the yellow metal shed half a buck to US$317 per oz. in New York. The Diversified Metals & Mining Index rebounded from two days of losses to gain 2.84 points or about 2.3% to hit 128.03.

Barrick Gold was the lone miner to make the TSX’s top ten traded list, grabbing two pennies to make $23.02 with just under 2.9 million shares traded. On Tuesday, Barrick said that it expects production to fall slight, but that it still expects to crank out almost 5.7 million at around US$178 apiece in 2003.

Most of the country’s remaining gold miners put in losses. Placer Dome lost 7 to $14.58 and Kinross Gold slipped 3 to $2.66 to round out the major producers.

The few other gold issues to end on the plus side included: mid-tier producer Agnico Eagle Mines, up 8 to $17.20; NovaGold Resources, a penny higher at $4.55; Viceroy Resources, plus half a penny to 31.5; and McWatters Mining, which advanced half a cent to 16.

On Wednesday, McWatters announced that it has restarted the newly expanded mill at its Sigma-Lamaque open pit operation in Quebec. The mill was expanded to 5,000 tonnes per day from 3,000 tonnes. Throughput will be gradually increased until it hits full stride late next year.

River Gold Mines dropped 8 to $3.02 after posting a third-quarter loss of $2.8 million, compared with year-ago earnings of $1.04 million. For the first nine months of 2002, the company lost $2.5 million, compared with a net loss of $130,000.

Most of the base metal miners put in decent gains. Inco made $1.02 to reach $33; Aur Resources rose 20 to $3.40; and Alcan advanced $1.54 to $50.10. All three saw more than a million shares change hands.

Takeover target Fording climbed 36 to $32.15. On Wednesday, Fording confirmed that it has inked, "a number" of confidentially agreements, and that interested third parties were examining its books. Still, the coal miner is forging ahead with its plan to convert to an income trust. A shareholder vote on the matter is slated for Dec. 20. A $29-per-share bid involving Sherritt International expires a week later. For their part, Sherritt shares finished a penny poorer at $4.19.

Despite advancers beating losers by a 308 to 292 margin, Canada’s junior exchange failed to find firm footing. The S&P-TSX Venture Exchange composite index lost 1.47 points or 0.16%, and closed at 941.12.

Canadian Royalties managed to recover a bit from yesterday’s drubbing, gaining 7 to close at $2.15 on nearly 1.1million shares. Stock in the junior sold off following the latest batch of drill results from the Mesamax Discovery zone on the Expo-Ungava property in northern Quebec. The best results from the new batch of samples came from hole 25, which was collared 35 metres east of the discovery hole and yielded 3.23% nickel, 3.93% copper, 0.11% cobalt, plus 1.01 grams gold, 0.75 gram platinum and 1.64 grams palladium over 21.2 metres

Making a nice percentage move on good volume, Arctic Star Diamond added 6 to close at 36 on 600,500 shares. The company is currently in the midst of selling up to 1.5 million units at a price of $0.25 each.Each unit holds one share and one warrant entitling the holder to purchase one additional share at a price of $0.30 per share for a period of two years. Arctic Star holds a number of diamond projects in Ontario and Manitoba.

TNR Resources added a penny to close at 19 on 726,900 shares. The company recently inked a deal to earn a 50% interest in the Opikeigen Lake gold property some 120 km east of Pickle Lake, Ontario.