Trading Summary (June 28, 2001)

After having a day to digest the U.S. Federal Reserve’s modest 0.25% rate cut on Wednesday, investors on the Toronto Stock Exchange seemed a bit more up-beat on Thursday. The rate for overnight lending from banks is now 3.75%, its lowest level in more than seven years. The TSE’s 300 composite index rose 69.54 points to 7,600.1. Leading the rally were the utilities, industrial products and consumer products subgroups, which all added at least 2%. The base metal issues inched up 16.99 points. The golds fell 102.14 points, or 2.2%, to 4,515.43.

Barrick Gold remained in investors’ sights, falling 64, or 2.7%, to $22.77 with more than 2.7 million shares changing hands. Earlier this week, the gold miner announced a US$2.3-billion shares swap to acquire rival Homestake Mining. Teck’s B series went the other way, gaining 2 pennies to $13.

Most of the country’s other gold miners followed Barrick’s lead. Kinross Gold and Meridian Gold both saw plus-5% losses, closing at $1.23 and $12.10, respectively. Other losers were Goldcorp, off a quarter at $16, Placer Dome, 66 lower at $$14.96, Glamis Gold, down a dime at $4.31, and Franco-Nevada Mining, down 20 at $19.20.

Franco sees more mergers in the gold sector as big rollers look to solidify their positions. The company says it will join in on the action. In April, Franco swapped its Ken Snyder mine in Nevada for a 19.9% stake in Australia’s Normandy Mining

There were a few gainers amongst the base metal issues. They included Inco, up 6 to $25.90, Sherritt International, up 3 to $5.02, Alcan 65 higher at $63.65, Cominco, up 24 to $29.39, and Boliden, which gained a nickel to 65.

Noranda fell 43 to $15.87. The company has signed a letter of agreement with Cambior and Bolivia’s Comsur to acquire 100% of the El Pachon copper deposit on the Chile-Argentina border. For its part, Cambior was off a penny at 79.

A positive day for technology stocks failed to lift Canada’s junior exchange out of its summer-time slide. The Canadian Venture Exchange ended the day down 6.81 points, or 0.2%, to close at 3,189.74. The Mining Index dropped 21.44 points, or 0.3%, to close at 7,355.09.

Cantex Mine Development traded heavily for the second straight day. Shares in the company added 1 to 10 on 422,000 shares. The Charles Fipke-led junior recently announced the discovery of five main gossan horizons within the Wadi Qutabah layered gabbroic complex in Yemen.

Shares in RJK Explorations continued to soar on news that a stripping program over the Stares-Calvert property near Thunder Bay has uncovered a zone of massive sulphides. In partnership with Toronto-listed Greater Lenora Resources, the company has exposed a 10-metre-wide unit containing zinc, copper and lead mineralization. RJK ended the day up 13 to 68 on 433,200 shares. A week ago, shares in the junior traded at 13.

The anticipated drill program over the El Tambor gold property in Guatemala continued to spur interest in Radius Explorations. The Simon Ridgway-led company ended the day up 2 to $1 with 218,000 shares changing hands. The company is waiting to close a $2-million financing before launching the program. This will include testing the Bridge zone, where surface trenching returned up to 85 metres grading 3.59 grams gold per tonne.

Philex Gold continued to drift lower ahead of further drill results from the Boyongan copper-gold prospect in the Philippines. Shares in the junior gold producer ended the day at $1.65, down 10 on weak volume of 46,000.