Toronto Stock Exchange – August 4-10

BMO Capital Markets is forecasting that the nine-month-long Canadian slump will end in the current quarter. While the initial recovery will be choppy and Canadian exports “are unlikely to stop falling until Americans start spending again,” BMO concedes in an Aug. 4 research note to clients, Canada should modestly outperform the U. S. next year “as relatively better household finances will support a stronger expansion of domestic spending.” So far, home sales in Canada have jumped 57% since January on a seasonally adjusted basis, the bank points out, and prices have “retraced most of last year’s decline.” Rising oil and resource prices meanwhile, thanks in large part to China’s Vshaped recovery, “should revive” investment plans in Western Canada. Investors are still jittery, however, and after three weeks of gains profit-taking sent the S&P/TSX composite index down 224.43 points or 2.04% to 10,793.67 during the Aug. 4-10 reporting period. The Capped Metals and Mining index dropped 17.36 points or 2.16% to 787.69.

Inmet Mining stands out in the Aug. 4-10 trading period with a surge of $4.48 per share to $49.64. Inmet, which has underground copper mines in Turkey and Finland, open-pit copper-gold mines in Canada and Papua New Guinea, and an open-pit copper mine in Spain is reaping the benefits of resurgent copper prices. (On Aug. 5, Bank of America Merrill Lynch revised its 2009 price forecast for copper to US$2.15 per lb. (from US$1.77) and to US$3.18 per lb. for 2010.) At the end of July, the miner announced second-quarter earnings of $1.37 per share compared with $1.40 in the year-earlier period. Inmet also noted that it is finalizing a National Instrument 43-101-compliant technical report and engineering and design study for its Petaquilla copper-gold-molybdenum project in Panama. Inmet said it expects Petaquilla to meet or exceed its target for mineral reserves that would support a minimum mine life of 30 years at a throughput rate of 150,000 tonnes per day.

Other bright spots included Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan, which advanced $4.61 per share to $104.97 and Agrium, which climbed $3.91 to $53.42 per share.

Iamgold gained $1.46 to $12.88 on the back of strong second-quarter results. Revenues were largely unchanged from the year-earlier quarter at US$225.3 million but net income improved by 33% to US$44.1 million (US12¢ per share), up from US$33.2 million (US11¢ per share) in the year-earlier quarter.

On the negative side of the ledger, First Quantum Minerals plunged $3.02 per share to $68.73 on news that the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo had cancelled its copper and cobalt mining contract for failing to move into commercial exploitation in the timeframe laid out in the original contract. It wasn’t all bad news, however. The government of Zambia has given its approval for the company to open a new copper mine.

TSX most active issues
	VOLUME	WEEK
	(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Equinox Minls EQN	71832	2.90	2.63	2.71	-0.02
Mercator Mnls ML	44662	2.46	1.92	2.28	+ 0.41
Lundin Mng LUN	33763	4.10	3.56	4.01	+ 0.69
WesternCCoal WTN	33612	3.67	2.80	3.36	+ 0.59
Teck B TCKB	31930	29.91	27.54	27.89	-0.46
Eldorado Gold ELD	28971	11.79	10.85	11.48	+ 0.65
Victory Nickel NI	28628	0.17	0.09	0.12	+ 0.03
GrandeCacheCGCE	27626	4.09	2.93	3.72	+0.86
Centamin Egypt CEE	26045	1.75	1.60	1.60	-0.13
Yamana Gold YRI	25257	10.65	9.70	9.75	-0.52

TSX greatest percentage change
		VOLUME	WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Virgin Metals	VGM	1350	0.09	0.06	0.07	+133.3
Moly Mines	MOL	10085	1.18	0.69	1.09	+109.6
Adanac Moly	AUA	9135	0.14	0.08	0.12	+ 50.0
Linear Metals	LRM	1108	0.16	0.11	0.15	+ 50.0
Richview Res	RVR	668	0.03	0.01	0.03	+ 50.0
Nevoro	NVR	1977	0.14	0.09	0.13	+ 44.4
Forsys Metals	FSY	10937	6.57	6.27	6.44	+ 35.8
TVI Pacific	TVI	3085	0.04	0.03	0.04	+ 33.3
Aquila Res	AQA	2039	0.29	0.19	0.24	+ 33.3
Timminco	TIM	11580	1.57	1.06	1.40	+ 33.3
Moydow Mns Int	MOY	97	0.16	0.10	0.10	-37.5
PC Gold	PKL	1202	1.19	0.72	0.78	-26.4
Atlanta Gold	ATG	235	0.25	0.20	0.20	-20.0
Zazu Metals	ZAZ	816	0.25	0.21	0.22	-18.5
American Bonan	BZA	384	0.10	0.08	0.09	-18.1
Dioro Expl	DIO	14	0.69	0.60	0.69	-16.8
Malaga	MLG	1155	0.12	0.09	0.10	-16.6
Thundermin Res	THR	187	0.19	0.16	0.16	-15.7
EMC Metals	EMC	703	0.14	0.11	0.11	-15.3
Nuinsco Res	NWI	3262	0.07	0.05	0.06	-14.2

TSX greatest value change
WEEK
		VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
Potash Cp Sask	POT	4934494	104.97	+ 4.61
Inmet Mining	IMN	2359942	49.64	+ 4.48
Agrium	AGU	5091776	53.42	+ 3.91
Forsys Metals	FSY	10936944	6.44	+ 1.70
Coeur d Alene	CDM	190106	16.76	+ 1.47
IAMGold Corp	IMG	11019942	12.88	+ 1.46
Royal Gold	RGL	16060	45.24	+ 0.92
GrandeCacheC	GCE	27625816	3.72	+ 0.86
Quadra Mng	QUA	6057467	11.40	+ 0.84
North Am En Pa	NOA	29157	6.61	+ 0.81
First Quantum	FM	4124478	68.73	-3.02
Major Drilling	MDI	515035	23.03	-1.78
Goldcorp	G	9566072	39.27	-1.66
Labdr I-Ore Ro	LIF_U	400491	36.41	-1.59
Agnico-Eagle	AEM	2641957	61.71	-1.48
Teck A	TCKA	32771	28.32	-1.18
NorthernDynM	NDM	484163	6.85	-1.12
Silver Std Res	SSO	664913	20.26	-1.02
Russell Metals	RUS	1815044	15.76	-0.94
Gammon Gold	GAM	1675972	6.63	-0.91