Toronto Stock Exchange – July 14-20

The S&P/TSX composite index surged 6.6% over the July 14-20 trading period, rising 649 points to close at 10,540, thanks to better than expected earnings from the materials, energy and financials sectors. The gains over the period nearly wiped out losses from the first half of July. Commodity producers led the pack after leading indicators in the United States increased confidence in demand for raw materials.

The Capped Metals and Mining index soared nearly 19% to 720 points, the Global Gold index rose 7.1% and the Global base metals index jumped 10.5% to 108 points.

Amidst the market hoopla, both gold and copper took positive leaps forward — gold shot up US$54.25 to US$965 per oz. and copper jumped US22¢ to US$2.44 per lb.

A 14% jump in second-quarter copper production pushed First Quantum Minerals shares up $16.75 to $69.64, making the miner the top gainer by value over the period. First Quantum reported that production rose to 92,600 tonnes, up from 81,000 tonnes for last year’s second quarter.

Copper-gold-zinc producer Inmet Mining also experienced a solid boost of $7.36 per share even before it reported its second-quarter earnings, finishing the period at $45.85 per share.

On the other side, Ivanhoe Mines shares dropped as the speculation continues over how long it will take the Mongolian government to approve an investment agreement for the company’s Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold project. Ivanhoe was down $1.08 to close at $8.69 per share.

Teck’s dramatic bounce-back continued, with class B shares up $5.29 over the period to $24.32. The stock, the most actively traded over the period with 51.4 million shares changing hands, was at 52-week low of $3.35 in May. Chinese state-owned China Investment Corp. recently bought a 17.5% stake in the company for US$1.74 billion.

Rockwell Diamonds shares were the second most actively traded, but the story is less triumphant. Rockwell shares were down a penny to 4¢ even though the company reported a 7% increase in diamond prices in the second quarter.

On a percentage basis, Athabasca Potash shares showed a significant gain, up 56% to $6.25 apiece after company said it was open to a merger or sale of all or part of the company.

Athabasca Potash is looking at its options for putting its Burr potash project into production.

Capital costs for the 2-million-tonne-per-year operation are estimated at US$2.5 billion and construction could take five to seven years.

And Khan Resources shares fell 25% over the period to 38¢ apiece after the mining licence of its joint-venture company Central Asia Uranium Corp. at its Dornod uranium deposit in Kazakhstan was suspended for three months because of alleged violations.

TSX most active issues
		VOLUME	WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Teck B	TCKB	51386	25.50	18.94	24.32	+ 5.29
Rockwell Diam	RDI	32785	0.04	0.03	0.04	-0.01
WesternCCoal	WTN	32240	2.24	1.88	2.18	+0.40
Equinox Minls	EQN	24653	2.78	2.10	2.70	+ 0.62
Denison Mines	DML	24108	2.01	1.77	1.92	+ 0.19
Breakwater Res	BWR	23072	0.28	0.20	0.26	+ 0.07
Capstone Mng	CS	23017	3.12	2.57	3.02	+ 0.51
Yamana Gold	YRI	21395	10.90	10.09	10.88	+ 0.72
Uranium One	UUU	21370	2.82	2.66	2.76	+ 0.07
Mercator Mnls	ML	19426	1.57	1.26	1.52	+ 0.31

TSX greatest percentage change
		VOLUME	WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Longview Cap	LV	295	0.07	0.05	0.07	+ 75.0
Firstgold	FGD	2565	0.08	0.04	0.08	+ 60.0
Athabasca Pota	API	7436	6.33	3.98	6.25	+ 55.8
Colombia Goldf	GOL	4262	0.09	0.05	0.09	+ 50.0
BRC DiamondCr	BCD	122	0.07	0.04	0.06	+ 50.0
Hillsborough	HLB	6770	0.45	0.29	0.44	+ 46.6
Copper Mtn Mng	CUM	1533	1.19	0.77	1.12	+ 43.5
Katanga Mng	KAT	5616	0.64	0.42	0.60	+ 42.8
Silver Wtn wtA	SLW_TA	12	0.90	0.76	0.90	+ 42.8
Nevsun Res	NSU	9572	2.04	1.47	1.85	+ 42.3
Crescent Gold	CRA	17	0.10	0.08	0.08	-42.8
Khan Res	KRI	869	0.53	0.37	0.38	-25.4
Rockwell Diam	RDI	32785	0.04	0.03	0.04	-20.0
Entree Gold	ETG	1466	1.78	1.29	1.37	-17.9
Erdene Res Dev	ERD	59	0.28	0.24	0.25	-16.6
Franconia Mnls	FRA	206	0.25	0.22	0.22	-15.3
Atlanta Gold	ATG	54	0.26	0.23	0.23	-14.8
Niocan Inc	NIO	10	0.27	0.24	0.24	-14.2
Horizns G Bear	HGD	6313	7.17	6.16	6.21	-13.7
Vena Res	VEM	17	0.40	0.36	0.36	-12.2

TSX greatest value change
WEEK
		VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
First Quantum	FM	3160765	69.64	+ 16.75
Inmet Mining	IMN	2865955	45.85	+ 7.36
Teck A	TCKA	28404	25.64	+ 5.65
Agnico-Eagle	AEM	2579029	63.99	+ 5.64
Teck B	TCKB	51386068	24.32	+ 5.29
Labdr I-Ore Ro	LIF_U	993011	35.64	+ 4.14
Potash Cp Sask	POT	5850994	101.36	+ 3.42
Goldcorp	G	8724562	42.03	+ 3.24
Major Drilling	MDI	315817	21.26	+ 2.86
Barrick Gold	ABX	11991956	39.40	+ 2.53
Ivanhoe Mines	IVN	10296383	8.69	-1.08
Horizns G Bear	HGD	6312906	6.21	-0.99
IShCOMEXGTr	IGT	34461	103.34	-0.87
Entree Gold	ETG	1465591	1.37	-0.30
Norsemont Mng	NOM	648896	1.35	-0.16
CIC Energy	ELC	471182	1.43	-0.16
Khan Res	KRI	869315	0.38	-0.13
Forsys Metals	FSY	792677	4.96	-0.11
Strateco Res	RSC	635674	0.75	-0.10
Metallic Vent	MVG	285400	0.57	-0.07