Toronto Stock Exchange May 22-28

The TSX Composite Index fell slightly over the May 22-28 trading period, but stayed near all-time highs as it finished at 14,024.07, down just 81.27 points.

Expectations of mergers in the metal sector moved the Metals and Mining Index higher; it was up 11.45 points to 802.75 despite falling prices for copper, aluminum, nickel, tin and zinc.

The Global Gold Index didn’t fare so well. It fell roughly 8 points as the yellow metal lost some lustre and shed roughly US$3 to close the period at US$655.30 per oz.

On the base metal side, Alcan rejected Alcoa’s US$28-billion hostile takeover offer, calling it “inadequate in multiple respects.” Reports surfaced that Alcan is in discussions with BHP Billiton, and that Norsk Hydro and Rio Tinto are considering making separate bids.

Alcan hasn’t ruled out launching its own bid for Alcoa. Its shares were up $5.70 to $94.25 apiece for the period.

The bidding war for LionOre Mining International also gathered steam. Russia’s Norilsk Nickel countered Xstrata’s most recent bid, totalling $6.2 billion, with a $6.8-billion offer. Xstrata has until June 1 to make a better offer. LionOre shares finished the period at $28.80 on 31.7 million shares traded.

The period’s most popular miners were Starfield Resources, Equinox Minerals and Dynatec.

Starfield — which saw trading volume of 47.6 million shares — was also the period’s second largest gainer by percentage. The Vancouver-based company gained over 43% to $1.46 over the session after announcing positive results from a petrological study at its Ferguson Lake palladium-platinum-nickel-cobalt-copper project in Nunavut.

Sherritt International says if its $1.6-billion takeover of Dynatec goes through, the mining company’s share of annual production from the Moa nickel project, in Cuba, and the new Ambatovy mine, in Madagascar, should reach 50,000 tonnes of ore by 2012.

Opawica Explorations was the largest gainer by percentage after announcing it had settled the terms of a private placement, option and joint-venture agreement with Northgate Minerals.

Opawica shares were up nearly 59% to 14 on 13.4 million shares traded. Northgate is taking 10 million shares of Opawica at 7 and can now earn 55% of the mineral rights at the company’s Matachewan properties in Ontario. Many of the claims are contiguous to Northgate’s Young-Davidson gold property.

Freegold Ventures rounded out the top three, gaining 31% to $1.18 on 18.2 million shares traded. The company announced high-grade intersects from its Golden Summit project, outside Fairbanks, Alaska, including highlights of 36.7 grams gold per tonne over 1 metre, 22.2 grams gold over 1 metre, and 13.4 grams over 2 metres.

TSX most active issues

		VOLUME(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Starfield Res	SRU	47694	1.59	1.01	1.46	+0.44
Equinox Minls	EQN	37101	3.10	2.78	3.08	+0.31
Dynatec Corp	DY	32951	5.14	4.68	5.13	+0.28
LionOre Mng In	LIM	31714	28.69	26.75	28.08	+0.44
Rio Narcea Gld	RNG	28117	5.76	5.25	5.55	+0.10
South Am Gld&C	SAG	22178	0.065	0.04	0.055	+0.005
Breakwater Res	BWR	20902	2.54	2.21	2.42	+0.01
Eastern Platin	ELR	20617	2.70	2.27	2.36	-0.09
Paladin Res	PDN	19838	8.40	7.53	7.88	-0.05
SXR Uranm One	SXR	16665	17.30	16.04	16.38	-0.20

TSX greatest percentage change

		VOLUME(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Opawica Expl	OPW	13402	0.14	0.08	0.135	+58.8
Starfield Res	SRU	47694	1.59	1.01	1.46	+43.1
Freegold Vent	ITF	1828	1.29	0.92	1.18	+31.1
Peru Copper	PCR	896	7.52	5.73	6.66	+19.5
Moneta Porcpn	ME	51	0.14	0.13	0.14	+16.6
Brazilian Diam	BDY	38	0.23	0.175	0.19	+15.1
Formation Cap	FCO	4769	0.92	0.76	0.88	+14.2
FNX Mining	FNX	5558	35.16	29.81	34.71	+14.1
Grandview Gld	GVX	170	0.55	0.45	0.46	+12.2
Equinox Minls	EQN	37101	3.10	2.78	3.08	+11.1
New Gold wt	NGD_T	64	0.42	0.27	0.30	-33.3
Ascendant C wt	ACX_T	81	0.10	0.07	0.07	-22.2
Energem Res	ENM	177	0.50	0.385	0.41	-18.0
Ontex Res	ONT	32	0.22	0.205	0.205	-16.3
Australn Solom	SGA	129	1.26	0.91	1.10	-15.3
Spur Ventures	SVU	916	0.72	0.62	0.62	-15.0
Virgin Metals	VGM	1073	0.71	0.56	0.60	-14.2
Glencairn G wt	GGG_T	70	0.14	0.125	0.125	-13.7
Laramide Res	LAM	1995	13.65	10.91	11.06	-12.8
Golden China R	GCX	503	0.74	0.59	0.64	-12.3

TSX greatest value change

		VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
Alcan	AL	11379036	94.25	+5.70
FNX Mining	FNX	5557760	34.71	+4.31
First Quantum	FM	2944193	86.59	+1.65
Energy Metals	EMC	11075742	18.29	+1.64
HudBay Minls	HBM	8281430	24.26	+1.26
Peru Copper	PCR	896133	6.66	+1.09
Ivanhoe Mines	IVN	5472473	14.74	+1.04
Thompson Creek	TCM	5619351	17.46	+0.83
Teck Comin A	TCKA	18819	49.79	+0.79
Inmet Mining	IMN	1255228	73.75	+0.65
Agnico-Eagle	AEM	2310731	36.23	-1.95
Major Drilling	MDI	544701	36.44	-1.68
Laramide Res	LAM	1994909	11.06	-1.63
Labdr I-Ore Ro	LIF_U	603668	33.85	-1.57
Goldcorp	G	12522135	24.55	-1.35
Potash Cp Sask	POT	3895286	73.51	-1.34
Gammon Lk Res	GAM	6278218	14.44	-1.21
Barrick Gold	ABX	8073176	31.37	-1.17
Denison Mines	DML	6735978	13.80	-1.12
Banro Res	BAA	192165	10.65	-1.05