U.S. equities were up in the Apr. 18-21 trading week

U.S. equities were gaining momentum before markets closed on Friday Apr. 22 for the Easter weekend. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 164.16 points or 1.33% in the abbreviated Apr. 18-21 trading week to close at 12,505.99, while the S&P 500 index rose 172.9 points or 1.25% to finish at 13,972.02.

With the U.S. dollar under increasing pressure, the Philadelphia Gold and Silver index gained 7.08 points or 3.24% to 225.79. Gold prices hit record highs above US$1,500 on Apr. 20, lifting the shares of majors like Barrick Gold and Goldcorp to new 52-week highs (US$55.74 per share and US$55.80 per share, respectively). Precious metals royalty company Royal Gold, with interests in thirty-three producing mines, topped the week’s gains, jumping US$6.43 to US$60.20, or 11.9%,  on no news, while Agnico-Eagle Mines advanced US$2.79 to US$68.03, also on no news.

Samex Mining posted the largest percentage gain, jumping 56.7% to US$1.27 per share on news of a “breakthrough in target definition” at its Cinchado project and multiple gold intersects at its Milagro and Milagro Pampa properties in Chile. A Titan-24 geophysical survey detected numerous additional targets at Cinchado, the company announced on Apr. 18, while a 900-metre step-out drill hole at the Milagro project intersected multiple gold-bearing stratigraphic intervals, which the company said are “favorable for hosting gold deposits.”

Banro Resources enjoyed the second-largest percentage gain of the trading week, up 31.8% to US$3.73 per share, on news that it had signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with state-owned China Gold International Resources, China’s biggest gold producer. The MOU states the two companies “intend to cooperate” on the development of Banro’s flagship Twangiza property, including the proposed Phase 2 mine and related hydro-power project. The MOU states that the two companies also intend to cooperate on Banro’s other properties along the Twangiza-Namoya gold belt in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The MOU does not, however, “create an obligation on the part of either party to consummate any transaction.”

Strong first quarter earnings pushed shares of Teck Resources up US$4.49 to US$56.43 per share. On Apr. 18 Teck reported earnings attributable to shareholders reached $461 million, or 78¢ per share, in the first quarter. Adjusted quarterly profit was $450 million, or 76¢ per share, more than double the $198 million reported in the first quarter of 2010.