Investors came out of the Canada Day holiday in a selling mood as the Canadian Markets ended Wednesday trading in a sea of red. For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange plunged 2.99%, while the TSX Gold Index fell 1.5% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, lost 1.49% with the declining issuers swamping the advancers by a 660 to 344 margin on light volume of 144 million shares traded.

Kola Mining (KM) added C$0.12 to close at C$0.47. The company recently arranged a C$10 million financing to advance its Souker nickel project in Russia.

Shares in Gold Point Energy (GPE) added C$0.045 to close at C$0.17 after the junior inked a letter of intent to farm-in to a portion of two oil and gas licenses in Bulgaria.

Armed with the Mount Klappan anthracite coal project in British Columbia, Fortune Minerals (FT)has hired CIBC World Markets to act as its financial advisor to unlock the value of the asset. Mount Klappan holds measured resources of 107.9 million tonnes and indicated resources of 123 million tonnes of coal but has long been stalled because of a variety of issues, the least of which has been a lack of infrastructure. Fortune ended the day up C$0.11 at C$2.11.

On the diamond front, Mountain Province Diamonds (MDM) announced that a 25.13 carat stone valued at about $440,000 has been recovered from the 2008 Tuzo bulk sample from the Gahcho Ku project in Canada’s far north. The junior ended the session up C$0.32 at C$4.74.

The equity markets seem to be facing a confidence crisis with worries over inflation sparking a global economic slow down starting to take hold. We will see what Thursday trading has in store.

Source: Resource Stock Roundup Thursday July 3, 2008