Resource Stock Roundup: Monday, February 23rd, 2009
Posted on: Feb 23rd, 2009 | By Doug Casey | Filed under Financial News
Worries over the financial health of the major banks sent investors running to the safety of gold during Friday trading on the Canadian markets. For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange plunged 2.88%, while the TSX Gold Index added another 3.2% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, fell 1.02% with the decliners swamping the advancers by a 483 to 340 margin on 181 million shares traded.
Barrick Gold (NYSE:ABX) posted a fourth-quarter loss of $468 million, or $0.53 per share thanks to $773 million in writedowns. Stripping out the writedowns, the world’s largest gold miner earned $0.32 per share. Sales rose 10 percent to $2.11 billion. At the end of 2008, Barrick had gold reserves of 138.5 million ounces and expects 2009 gold production to come in between 7.2 million and 7.6 million ounces, slightly down from 2008 production of 7.66 million ounces. Barrick also agreed to buy Teck Cominco’s 50 percent stake in the Hemlo gold operation in western Ontario for a cool $65 million. That gives Barrick 100 per cent of the operation. Barrick ended the session up C$0.18 at C$46.08, while Teck Cominco (NYSE:TCK) lost C$0.25 at C$3.80.
Shares of Silvercorp fell C$0.37 to close at C$3.13 after the base metal miner inked a deal to sell 10 million shares at C$3.10 each.
It was yet another quiet news day during Friday’s session with companies electing to keep their heads down during the selling binge. We will see what Monday trading has in store.
Source: Resource Stock Roundup: Monday, February 23rd, 2009
Doug Casey is a contrarian investor, sought-after public speaker and author of several books. His work "Crisis Investing" held the position of # 1 bestseller on the New York Times list for 26 consecutive weeks. Doug's unusual views on the economy - and just about everything else - have gained a huge following in the investment community, and it certainly helps that his stock recommendations of undervalued junior exploration companies have made his subscribers millions. Now in its 27th year, Doug's monthly newsletter, the International Speculator, is one of the most established and esteemed publications on gold, silver and other natural resource investments. Together with the Casey Energy Speculator, it covers a broad range of carefully selected stocks with the very real potential of double- and triple-digit returns within 12 to 24 months.