Trading Summary (July 27, 2001)

The technology-heavy industrial products subindex led a mini-rally on The Toronto Stock Exchange on Friday, gaining 97 points, or 2.4%. Overall, the TSE 300 composite index gained 79.63 points, or 1%, to end the week at 7,682.2. Just three of the TSE’s 14 subindexes finished in the red. The golds rose 52.06 points and the base metal issues climbed 31.32 points.

Gold too finished the week on an up-note, gaining US80 per oz. to close at US$267. The rest of the shinies suffered losses, most notably palladium, which shed US$10, or 2.2%, to hit US$445 per oz. All of the base metals made gains on the London Metal Exchange. Nickel rose US$130 to US$5,770 per tonne.

Teck was the lone miner to put in an appearance on the TSE’s most active issue list. The diversified miner’s stock edged up 4 to $11.79 with more than 1.2 million shares on the go. The company has posted higher second-quarter earnings powered by electricity sales.

Alcan was another busy base metal issue, gaining 40 to hit $57.15 on just more than 1 million shares. The aluminum giant declared a quarterly dividend of US15 per common share, payable on September 20. The Montreal-based company has about 320.8 million shares outstanding.

Gaining 47 to $16.72 was Falconbridge, which ended at $16.50 with about 205,000 shares traded. The company announced the closing of its acquisition of Boliden’s Lomas Bayas copper mine and Fortuna de Cobre copper deposit in Chile. For its part, Boliden edged up half a penny to 30. Boliden says its restructuring is moving along nicely.

Most of the country’s major gold players saw gains on Friday. Placer Dome was the busiest with just less than 1 million shares moving. The issue gained 50 to $16.12. TVX Gold rose a penny 70 on about 620,000 shares as its restructuring continues. Barrick Gold climbed two dimes to $23.45 and Cambior found 3 and hit 75.

Barrick posted slightly lower second-quarter net income of US$66 million (or 17 per basic and fully diluted share) on US$333 million in revenue. Cambior posted a second-quarter net loss of US$10.9 million (or 12 per share) on revenue of US$49.9 million.

Summer holidays are in full swing at Canada’s junior exchange with all indexes showing little change on weak volumes. The Canadian Venture Exchange composite lost 8.60 points, or 0.3%, and closed the day at 3,066.85. The Mining Index managed to tack on 17.61 points, or 0.2%, and closed at 7,310.31.

Argosy Minerals recovered slightly from yesterday’s selloff, following the announcement that Norilsk Nickel would complete a feasibility study over the junior’s Nakety-Bogota nickel laterite property in New Caledonia. The company ended the week by tacking on 2 to 33 on 733,600 shares. During the past month, stock in the company had run up from 15 to over 40 per share on speculation that a deal would happen.

Big Blackfoot Resources ended the day unchanged at 3 on 591,000 shares. The company recently optioned its Plata-Inca base metal property in the Yukon to fellow junior Copper Ridge Exploration.

American Bonanza Gold Mining, formerly Asia Minerals, continued to trade at a 52-week low, ending the day unchanged at 3 on 574,000 shares. The company has been attempting to advance the Copperstone gold project in Arizona.

Investors all but ignored the news that Rimfire Mineral and Western Keltic Mines have started drilling at the Boundary zone on the Goodpaster gold project in Alaska. Rimfire shares closed flat at 35. Western Keltic shares were unchanged at 12.