For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange gained 2.30%, while the TSX Gold Index added an impressive 19.1% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, dropped 1.99% with the declining issuers swamping the advancers by a 660 to 315 margin on good volume of 191 million shares traded.

The trading on the junior board was all about those companies that happen to have some liquidity for the sellers. Shares of VMS Ventures, which has been posting stellar results from its Reed Lake Discovery project in Manitoba, lost C$0.035 to close at C$0.295 with nearly 1 million shares traded, and B2Gold, the once highly touted Colombian gold explorer, lost C$0.05 at C$0.45 on over 1.9 million shares traded.

Shares of Eurasian Minerals (EMX) added C$0.13 to close at C$0.85 after the junior announced trench results of 19.15% copper and 140 grams silver per tonne over 14 metres at the Champagne prospect in Haiti.

Sherwood Copper (SWC) had a rough session on no new developments. The Yukon copper miner lost C$0.32 to close at C$2.05.

The big board gold miners were the winners of the day, as Barrick Gold (ABX) added C$6.53 to close at C$40.20, Goldcorp (G) surged C$5.53 to close at C$34.36, Agnico Eagle (AEM) tacked on C$6.95 to close at C$57.20, Kinross Gold (K) climbed C$3.05 at C$18.30 and Yamana Gold (YRI) added C$1.34 to close at C$8.40.

It is all about cash preservation for the junior explorers as they try to ride out this credit crunch. A massive amount of juniors have essentially gone no bid, making it impossible to sell in any size. We will see what Thursday trading has in store.

Source: Resource Stock Roundup Thursday, October 9, 2008