2011 a lackluster year for the TSX

The TSX Composite Index ended the Dec.21-30 trading period up as signs that the U.S. economy was improving offset worries of Europe unraveling. The index gained 238.21 points to end the last trading day of the year at 11, 955.09. But the increase wasn’t enough to keep the index from losing more than 11% during the year, marking its first year-on-year drop since 2008. The resource-heavy index also finished 17% below its 52-week high of 14,329.49 that it reached in March.

Similarly, the diversified miners’ final performance didn’t make up for the lackluster year. The S&P/TSX Capped Diversified Metals & Mining Index jumped 24.57 points during the period to 1,080.63, but dropped 27% over the year.

The Global Gold Index also took a hit, slipping 11.79 points to 360.40 on Dec. 30, ending roughly 60 points below last year’s close.

Bucking the trend was gold, gaining on the year but sliding during the last trading days of 2011. The spot price in New York dropped US$58.10 per oz. during Dec. 21-30 to US$1,566.40. But it ended the year up 10% thanks to the global economic uncertainty and political upheaval that had investors driving the price of gold to new heights. In early September, gold hit a high of US$1,895 per oz. (London PM Fix) before cooling down.

Shore Gold was the biggest percentage gainer for the period, advancing 43.3% to 43¢, on no news. Following close behind was St Augustine with a 40% gain on no major news. The company, which is developing the King-king copper-gold deposit on the Philippine Island of Mindanao, closed the year at 26¢.

Gran Colombia Gold saw its shares move up 36.8% to 52¢ on 10.8 million shares traded after it announced on Dec. 20 that it signed an exclusive mandate letter with Standard Bank for a US$100-million senior secured term loan. The company plans to use the funds to boost production at its Segovia operations in Colombia by developing a new mechanized mining operation for the four underground gold mines at Segovia. It also plans to add a 2,500-tonne-per-day mill to the existing operation.

The most actively traded stock was Lake Shore Gold, with 21.2 million shares changing hands. It closed up 3¢ to $1.28 apiece. On Dec. 29, the company said it filed a technical report on SEDAR for the Thunder Creek gold property in Timmins, Ont. The project contains an indicated gold resource of more than a half a million ounces.

On Dec. 22, Kinross Gold closed a US$200-million non-recourse loan from a group of international financial institutions to finance its stake in the Kupol gold-silver project in Russia to 100%. Its shares lost 56¢ during the period to $11.63 on 14.2 million shares traded. For 2011, Kinross shares fell 38%.