TORONTO – Gold stocks were still top of mind Tuesday among traders on the Toronto Stock Exchange, again losing ground although mostly not at the heart-stopping rate of the previous session as bullion prices recovered slightly.
An exception was Barrick Gold Inc. (TSX:ABX), which continued to get severely beaten up by investors. The Toronto-based miner’s stock closed down another $1.06, or more than five per cent, at $19.24. Continuing heavy volume of more than 9.8 million shares made it the most active issue on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Barrick, which fell more than 11 per cent Monday on top of losses of more than 15 per cent last week, is facing a number of challenges in addition to the falling price of bullion.
Among them, its shares have been hit by a Chilean court decision to suspend construction on its $8-billion Pascua-Lama mine located on the border with Argentina after indigenous communities complained that the project is threatening their water supply and polluting glaciers.
Meanwhile, on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the June bullion contract closed up $23.30 at $1,387.40, regaining at least a fraction of Monday’s plunge of US$140 an ounce. However, the contract gave back a good portion of the gain in early after-hours trading.
Monday’s nine per cent drop was the biggest one-day decline in more than 30 years, knocking the price of the precious metal to its lowest level in two years.
The TSX gold index itself is down more than 37 per cent year to date.
Osisko Mining Corp. (TSX:OSK), which lost a whopping 21 per cent on Monday, was down nearly 2 per cent at $3.96 on Tuesday, while Kinross Gold (TSX:K) finished the session down just over one per cent at $5.48 after shedding 13.5 per cent of its value on Monday.
Goldcorp (TSX:G). the runaway volume leader Monday at 33.5 million shares as it fell 5.6 per cent, closed down another five cents, or 0.18 per cent, at $28.33.
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