For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange gained 1.52%, while the TSX Gold Index rallied 1.5% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, ended the session up 1.28% with advancing issuers actually beating out the declining issues by a 557 to 460 margin with slowing volume of almost 200 million shares traded.

Shares in VMS Ventures got a modest boost after the junior announced that drilling has resumed on its Reed Lake copper-zinc discovery zone in Manitoba. VMS ended the day up C$0.075 at C$0.53.

Finally some profit taking ensued on Goldsource Mines’ red hot coal play. Shares in the junior have exploded following news that two holes testing for kimberlites cut coal instead in east-central Saskatchewan. Having run up from C$0.19 two weeks ago, shares in Goldsource ended the day down C$0.47 at C$4.20.

Swift Resources and Saturn Minerals also gave back some of Thursday’s gains following news it made applications for coal permits in the area. Swift ended the day down C$0.41 at C$0.64, while Saturn lost C$0.145 to C$0.34.

As usual for this time of year, the news flow has stalled to a trickle. That said, the news coming out does tend to be market moving. We will see what Monday trading has in store.

For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange gained 0.92%, while the TSX Gold Index fell 0.7% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, ended the session up 0.36% with declining issues continuing to surpass the advancers this time by a 546 to 440 margin with slowing volume of almost 191 million shares traded.

Centerra Gold earned $19.3 million or $0.09 per share in the first quarter of 2008, up from the $5.9 million or $0.03 per share posted in the same period of 2007. Not good enough on a down day for gold as Centerra ended the session down C$0.16 at C$8.48.

Shares of Goldsource Mines are not letting up as buyers continue to gobble it up on speculation the junior has made a coal discovery in Saskatchewan. The company recently completed six drill holes of a permitted 22-hole program on its mineral claim blocks in central and eastern Saskatchewan. No kimberlites were encountered and the only results of interest were coal intercepts in two of the holes. The coal is described as black and moderately hard and therefore judged by visual characteristics to be either sub-bituminous or bituminous in rank rather than lignite. Results are pending but in the meantime Goldsource added C$1.37 to close at C$4.67.

Riding the area play, Swift Resources made applications for coal permits in east-central Saskatchewan, in the area of Goldsource’s recently-announced coal discovery. This news sent its shares up C$0.745 to C$1.05.

Not to be left out, Saturn Minerals also made applications for coal permits in the same area and saw its shares climb C$0.21 to close at C$0.485 on a mind boggling 26 million shares traded.

Midway Gold added C$0.10 to close at C$2.34 after announcing a 12.2 metre intercept running 4.6 grams gold per tonne at its Thunder Mountain project in Nevada.

Canada’s junior bourse is once again treading water around the 2,400-point level, which has been bottom support since early in 2006. We will see what Friday trading has in store.