Vancouver Stock Exchange Rate fearts send market down

Last week the federal government’s decision to extend and enhance flow-through (at least for juniors) was greeted with a big yawn; but the market has backed off since then and today it followed Toronto and New York into negative territory, although not quite as deep. Speculation that interest rates will go higher has been sending many people into interest-sensitive investments rather than stocks which may explain some of the weakness.

By presstime, the VSE index was off 6.2 points to 1052.6 with declining issues outpacing advances by a margin of two to one. Two new listings accounted for much of the early volume. Moche Resources traded at 40 cents on a turnover of 550,000 shares and Tobex Resources sold for 63 cents on a volume of 301,000 shares.

Delaware Resources has been very active since it was taken over by Colossus Resource Equities, a Prime Group (Corona) company. In active trading today, Delaware was ahead 25 cents to $13.25. The underground adit into Delaware’s SNIP deposit was expected to hit the ore zone Thursday, May 12.

Calpine Resources came on strong, rising 4 cents to 38 cents , and International Prism showed some life, climbing 3 cents to 63 cents . Calpine recently concluded an agreement to acquire a 50% interest in 33 mining claims held by Consolidated Stikine Silver 60 miles northwest of Stewart. B.C. Prism has extensive land holdings south and north of Skyline’s Johnny Mountain gold project which is also north of Stewart. (This area should be one of the most active in the country this year.)

Alotta Resources, which has traded heavily for several weeks, was off 13 cents to 72 cents . Noting that base metal values (Ni, Cu, Co) from its Gagne- Duschesne property have been reported in terms of gold equivalent, Alotta explained the procedure was designed to “make the values more understandable to the ordinary lay person.”

Over our report period, Newfields Minerals, posted a 40 cents increase to $3.70. The company has the right to earn a 50% interest in certain properties surrounding Teck Corp.’s Newfoundland zinc mine.

Empire Gold closed the week 34 cents higher at $1.75 and International Petroleum jumped 30 cents to $4.30. The former recently concluded an agreement to lease 50 lode and placer claims in California. Internatonal Petroleum was just awarded a large oil and gas concession in the Yemen Arab Republic. Golden Lion was the volume leader with a turnover of 2.7 million shares. The stock was up 23 cents to 55 cents . The company has signed a letter of intent to acquire an Alaskan forest products company.