Toronto Stock Exchange November 28-December 4

The Toronto Stock Exchange enjoyed five good trading days Nov. 28-Dec. 4, touching all-time highs in intra-day trading on three of the five. Unlike the oil-and-gold run earlier in the year, the advances were broadly based, with banks, real estate, consumer goods, and information technology sectors all touching record levels. The Composite Index was 2.4% higher, rising 306.22 points to 12,848.67.

The metals and mining group outpaced the market and also reached an all-time high of 646.17 points on Dec. 4, finishing at 646.14 points, up 31.90 or 5.2%. The golds, while not near record highs, have been gaining ground fairly steadily since mid-November and closed at 345.7 points, up 24.55 points or 7.6%.

Copper-sensitive stocks held the baton among the base metal miners. Inmet Mining posted the biggest gain, rising $8.48 to $65.35, but Aur Resources was up $4.10 at $25.97 and First Quantum Minerals gained $3.46 to close at $64.20. Among nickel miners, LionOre Mining International was $1.88 higher at $12.53 and FNX Mining jumped $1.65 to $17.55.

In the gold group, the big gains went to the mid-tier miners; Yamana Gold gained $2.09 to finish at $15.48 and Eldorado Gold added 67 to close at $6.97. The bigger gold companies also gained ground, but behind the pack; Barrick Gold rose $2.35 to $35.89, Goldcorp $2.90 to $35.55, and Kinross Gold 94 to $14.50. Bema Gold moved in lockstep with Kinross, its gain of 41 to $6.30 a mirror of Kinross’s 0.441-share bid for Bema.

More interesting were gains among the smaller companies on the index. Crystallex International, which had tanked back at mid-year over doubts about Venezuelan mining policy, got a big boost from Venezuelan election results, rising 66 to $4.56. Construction permits for the Las Cristinas project in Bolivar state have been slow in coming, but the market interpreted the re-election of the government of Hugo Chavez Frias (the same one that has been so slow on the permits) as a positive sign for the future.

Sometime market high-flier Southwestern Resources was up $1.63 to $9.23 on news from its Boka gold project in Yunnan province, China, and its Liam silver-gold joint venture in Peru. New intersections from the Boka 1 South zone extended the known length of the zone by 100 metres and indicated mineralization at depth below previous drill holes in the interior of the zone.

At Liam, a joint venture with Newmont, Southwestern reported the discovery of a new surface prospect, Aluja, and released results from drilling on two other prospects, with mainly low-grade gold and silver values over long intersections, and bonanza numbers over narrower widths.

Junior Premier Gold rose 37 to $1.17 following its announcement of a deal with Goldcorp to explore a Red Lake, Ont., land package the two companies will put together.

TSX greatest percentage change

		VOLUME(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Brazilian Diam	BDY	7859	0.31	0.155	0.28	+75.0
First Nickel	FNI	17542	0.66	0.36	0.65	+62.5
Premier Gold M	PG	2770	1.20	0.80	1.17	+46.2
Ontex Res	ONT	64	0.16	0.135	0.16	+45.4
Eastern Pla wt	ELR.WT	72	0.74	0.35	0.65	+44.4
Thundermin Res	THR	5891	0.125	0.085	0.105	+40.0
Rubicon Mnrls	RMX	5098	1.32	0.94	1.29	+38.7
WGI Heavy Mnl	WG	697	0.80	0.55	0.79	+38.6
NEMI Nor En&Mg	NNE.A	1213	0.55	0.38	0.47	+23.6
Formation Cap	FCO	4454	0.46	0.34	0.42	+23.5
HMZ Metals wt	HMZ.WT	1637	0.025	0.01	0.01	-33.3
SouthernEra wt	SDM.WT	71	0.09	0.055	0.07	-30.0
Gryphon Gold	GGN	1777	0.99	0.76	0.77	-21.4
Peregrine D wt	PGD.WT	151	0.12	0.08	0.08	-20.0
NewWest Gold	NWG	79	2.20	1.75	2.00	–	19.0
HMZ Metals	HMZ	1424	0.085	0.055	0.055	-15.3
Cline Mng	CMK	683	0.38	0.32	0.33	-13.1
Nuinsco Res	NWI	11554	0.98	0.73	0.81	-12.9
Eurasia Gold	EGX	30	1.54	1.40	1.49	-12.3
Sierra Minls	SIM	52	0.38	0.33	0.33	-10.8

TSX greatest value change

		VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
Inmet Mining	IMN	1860047	65.35	+8.84
Royal Gold	RGL	16059	38.66	+5.42
Cameco Corp	CCO	10280472	44.59	+4.59
Teck Comin B	TCK.B	5997128	89.05	+4.50
Potash Cp Sask	POT	1313721	164.01	+4.49
Aur Res	AUR	5681021	25.97	+4.10
Denison Mines	DEN	1387898	29.35	+3.72
First Quantum	FM	2807660	64.20	+3.46
Agnico-Eagle	AEM	5335731	51.36	+3.36
Denison Mn wt	DEN.WT	28610	15.72	+2.92
Russell Metals	RUS	1258502	28.10	-0.65
Central Fund	CEF.A	719075	11.06	-0.58
Dundee Prec Mt	DPM	99450	11.22	-0.53
NewWest Gold	NWG	78725	2.00	-0.47
North Am Pall	PDL	135140	9.88	-0.46
Greystar Res	GSL	107699	10.28	-0.42
Mega Uranium	MGA	6245641	5.40	-0.40
Alexco Res	AXR	216822	4.90	-0.40
Fronteer Dev G	FRG	1014356	9.87	-0.32
Moto Gold Mine	MGL	582643	6.74	-0.31

TSX most active issues

		VOLUME(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Eastern Platin	ELR	40964	1.39	1.16	1.36	+0.14
Paladin Res	PDN	30546	6.72	5.95	6.53	+0.23
Eldorado Gold	ELD	29023	7.02	6.13	6.97	+0.67
Bema Gold	BGO	27894	6.30	5.81	6.30	+0.42
Goldcorp	G	20972	35.89	32.10	35.55	+2.90
Kinross Gold	K	20955	14.54	13.35	14.50	+0.94
First Nickel	FNI	17542	0.66	0.36	0.65	+0.25
Campbell Res	CCH	16059	0.145	0.12	0.13	-0.015
Breakwater Res	BWR	13977	2.08	1.71	2.01	+0.24
Yamana Gold	YRI	13569	15.48	13.03	15.48	+2.09