September 20th NEX

In today's NEX trading, the Barrel's Bottom Composite index closed at 86.23, down 0.53 points or 0.611% from the previous day's close of 86.76. Despite initial drops in the prices of Rocher Deboule Minerals Corp. [NEX: RD.H] and Focus Ventures Ltd. [NEX: FCV.H], the BBC Index held up until late morning, by several gainers that counteracted the few decliners in that time period. In fact, between 11 AM ET and 12 PM ET, the index got slightly above 87. This plateau eroded by late morning, when Maximum Ventures [NEX: MVI.H] began trading with a drop of 14 cents/share to 51 cents/share, its closing price as established by one board lot of 500 shares traded. The resultant thud in the BBCI partially reversed in the early afternoon, although this upside reversal didn't hold as early afternoon turned into mid-afternoon. Partially responsible for the re-erosion was a much more substantial trader today, Rose Marie Resources Ltd. [RSR.H], which opened up with a 1 cent/share loss at about 12:24 PM ET. There was a lot more than a single board lot traded today in RSR.H: its volume for the day was 810,000 shares. A partial recovery of Rocher later in the afternoon helped staunch the decline in the BBCI, even though its effect was counteracted in large part by a 1 cent/share decline in the price of Toba Industries Ltd. [NEX: TBG.H], as of its first trade at about 2:51 PM, and a 0.5-cent drop in the price of Rose Marie as of about 2:55 PM. The BBC Index managed to creep back up to about the level it was at 2 PM by the close.

Here are the values for the Barrel's Bottom Composite for the NEX, hour by hour:

• 10 AM: 86.69
• 11 AM: 86.72
• 12 PM: 86.10
• 1 PM: 86.40
• 2 PM: 86.23
• 3 PM: 86.18
• 4 PM/Close: 86.23

Thirty-four NEX stocks traded today. Of these, 12 advanced, 7 declined and 15 remained unchanged. There were 199 trades. The top trader in terms of raw volume was, once again, Rose Marie Resources Ltd. [NEX: RSR.H] with the above-mentioned 810,000-share volume. All of today's trades had "Anonymous" as the sell-side financial institution. Rose Marie, according to the other Barrel's Bottom report and the TSX Venture closing summary for today, also took the #1 spot in terms of value of shares traded. The runner-up in both volume and value, Challenger Development Corp. [NEX: CDQ.H], wasn't even close in either category. Rose Marie placed a strong first on the top-ten list of volume traded divided by total shares outstanding, found below. Challenger didn't place at all.

There was no news release from any NEX company that was picked up by Marketwire today, although one NEX company was included at the bottom of today's TSX Venture Daily Bulletins: Silvio Ventures [NEX: SIV.H]. The halt on SIV.H has now been rescinded; Silvio shares will resume trading tomorrow.

Two NEX companies sent out releases today through Canjex Publishing, one early in the morning and one in the evening. The first, from Arcland Resources Inc. [NEX: ADR.H], announced a still-in-progress $336,000 private placement of 3.2 million shares at 10.5 cents/share. "The proceeds," according to the news release, "will be reserved for working capital." ADR.H didn't trade today; its last close was at 14 cents/share on Sept. 14th, a 52-week low. The second release concerns International Silver Ridge Resources Inc. [NEX: ISG.H]; it's even briefer than the brief one sent out by Arcland. "The Alberta Securities Commission has revoked its Sept. 12, 2003, cease trade order against International Silver Ridge Resources Inc., effective Sept. 20, 2007." That's the release in its entirety.

Two NEX stocks traded more than ten times today, with one of them far out in front of the others as measured by number of trades. Despite what the first paragraph of this report suggested, the top trader in terms of numerousness was Rocher Deboule, with 78 trades today. Sixty-one of those trades were for one board lot (500 shares) each, which explains why RD.H was so far out in front despite its daily volume being 83,251 shares - little more than a tenth of the volume of the next-highest in terms of number of trades, Rose Marie Resources. Trading in RD.H was brisk all through the day. It opened at 50 cents/share and stayed there for the first two hours of trading, except for a brief dip below that price between 10:20 and 10:29 AM ET. After another dip from 11:45 AM ET to 12:05 PM ET, which troughed at a higher price than the one in mid-morning, RD.H began climbing. A third dip at about 1:17 PM ET, which took the price of Rocher's stock to its daily low of 46.5 cents/share (excluding odd lots, although the odd-lot low was reached at this time too), was quickly followed by a jump to 53 cents/share. For the rest of the day, RD.H stayed within a cent of that 53 cent/share jump; it veered between 52 and 53 cents in mid-afternoon and 53-54 cents in the last hour of trading. That same 53 cents/share was Rocher's closing price, for a gain of a penny per share on the day. Rocher placed fifth on the top-ten daily-turnover list, found below.

Rose Marie did place a distant second in the numerousness category, but the number of trades in RSR.H today was far above that of the typical first-placer during this summer. Almost all of the 32 trades in the stock of Rose Marie today had five-figure volumes, but not all of them. As mentioned above, trading in RSR.H started in the afternoon; twelve more trades were made in the first half-hour after that first trade. As of an hour after it, twenty had been made. Rose Marie then lay dormant until about 2:55 PM ET, when the price dropped from 12 cents/share to 11.5 cents/share. After a brief dip to 11 cents/share at about 3:05 PM ET, Rose Marie returned to 11.5 cents/share, where it closed. The first trade was the only one at 12.5 cents/share, although the fourth and fifth of the day were at 13 cents/share.

The top percentage gainer in today's trading was Emergence Resort Canada Inc. [NEX: ERS.H], which closed at 33 cents/share for a gain of 10.5 cents/share or 46.67% on the day. Two trades, both at about 3:06 PM ET, accounted for the gain. The first one, of 5,000 shares, was at 30 cents/share; the second and last, of 2,000 shares, pushed the price up to 33 cents/share. Both had Desjardins as the buy-side financial institution, indicating that they composed a 7,000 share bought block of Emergence.

The top percentage decliner for today was the above-mentioned Maximum Ventures Inc. [NEX: MVI.H], which closed at 51 cents/share for a loss of 14 cents/share or 21.54%. As also noted above, one single board lot's worth of Maximum pushed its price down enough to make it today's top percent decliner.

Finally, the above-mentioned list of yesterday's top ten traders, as measured by % of total outstanding shares or daily turnover:

1. Rose Marie Resources Ltd. [NEX: RSR.H] - 11.9% of total shares outstanding;
2. Gold Star Resources Corp. [NEX: GXX.H] - 1.02% of TSO;
3. Focus Ventures Ltd. [NEX: FCV.H] - 0.586%;
4. MP Western Properties Inc. [NEX: MPW.H] - 0.495%;
5. Rocher Deboule Minerals Corp. [NEX: RD.H] - 0.397%;
6. Guildhall Minerals Ltd. [NEX: GDM.H] - 0.319%;
7. Abitibi Mining Corp. [NEX: ABB.H] - 0.282%;
8. Canadian Quantum Energy Corporation [NEX: CQM.H] - 0.268%;
9. Specialty Foods Group Income Fund [NEX: HAM.UN.H] - 0.263%;
10. Monster Uranium Corp. [NEX: MU.H] - 0.243%.

NOTE: I am not affiliated with the TSX, nor is this blog. The Barrel's Bottom Composite index is not endorsed by the TSX.

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