September 6th NEX

In yesterday's NEX trading, the Barrel's Bottom Composite index closed at 85.63, down 0.30 points or 0.349% from the previous day's close of 85.93. The BBC Index sunk in the early morning, thanks in large part to slumps in both Challenger Development [NEX: CDQ.H] and Dorato Resources Inc. [NEX:DRI.H]. An opening slump in Isee3d Inc. [NEX: ICT.H] at about 10:14 AM ET helped push the BBC Index further down during mid-morning trading. This slump reversed by late morning, but the BBCI stayed in negative territory, with respect to Wednesday's closing, except for the hours between 2 and 3 PM. This upsurge occurred thanks to a spurt in Newstrike Capital Inc. [NEX: NES.H] from $1.10/share to $1.15 at about 2:52 PM. The trade that did it failed to keep NES.H at that level; it closed at the same $1.10/share price at which it opened, for a drop of 1 cent/share from the previous day's close. This drop helped spring the BBC Index back down into negative territory by the close of yesterday's trading.

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

• 10 AM: 85.80
• 11 AM: 85.47
• 12 PM: 85.58
• 1 PM: 85.75
• 2 PM: 85.75 [slightly higher than 1 PM's value, but equalized by rounding error.]
• 3 PM: 86.20
• 4 PM/Close: 85.63

Thirty-two NEX stocks traded yesterday. Of these, 9 advanced, 12 declined and 11 remained unchanged. There were 111 trades. The top trader in terms of raw volume was Challenger Development Corp.; 365,000 shares of CDQ.H traded yesterday. There was an unusually low number of trades in Challenger given its #1 spot on both the top-ten lists of trades, as measured by raw volume and by value of shares traded, as shown by the TSX Venture closing summary for yesterday. As with Magnate Ventures Inc. [NEX: MGV.H] last Wednesday, and Challenger itself on Tuesday, one monster trade accounted for Challenger getting on top of both lists yesterday: 350,000 shares of CDQ.H were traded at 40 cents/share, at about 3:25 PM. The $140,000 value of this single trade was far greater than the total value of shares traded in the #2-ranked issue in terms of value, which was Magnate. Unlike the last two days, yesterday's #2 in terms of raw volume was different from the #2 in terms of value. YSV Ventures Inc. [NEX: XSV.H] took the #2 slot in raw volume, with 140,000 shares traded in 5 different five-figure trades, all at the same price of 4 cents/share, its closing price. Challenger closed at 40 cents/share, down 1.5 cents/share on the day, and Magnate closed at 30 cents/share, unchanged. YSV closed up a cent/share from its previous close on August 30th, and it placed at #6 on the Top Ten list of share volume as a percentage of total (free-trading) shares outstanding, found at the bottom of this entry. Despite that monster trade, Challenger made second place; Magnate was #1, just as it was Wednesday, although the daily-turnover percentage for MGV.H was in the single digits for yesterday's trading.

There was one NEX company mentioned in the TSX Venture Exchange Daily Bulletins for yesterday. VMX Resources is undergoing a name and symbol change, starting at the opening of today's trading. It's now known as Monster Uranium Corp., and its new symbol is MU.H. Nothing else material is changing.

No Marketwire press releases for any NEX company were issued yesterday, but there were two from Canjex Publishing (courtesy of Stockwatch.) The first, released by the still-halted DVD Investments Limited [NEX: DVD.H] in mid-afternoon, is an update on DVD's attempt to finish a reverse takeover of Mooncor Energy. The latter company has rights to acquire working interests in five oil-and-gas fields in Alberta and Saskatchewan, according to its press release. The bulk of the release, though, is a review of the deal.

The second Canjex release, from International Silver Ridge Resources Inc. [NEX: ISG.H], is less quotidian. This release, issued last night, announced a lawsuit against a Silver Ridge director, Jon Perrett, and his wife for effectively charging a "criminal" rate of interest on a loan to Gemini Explorations, Ltd. In exchange for a loan of $US100,000 back on November 3, 2003, Gemini agreed to pay 5% interest and issued a promissory note to Mr. Perrett and his wife in the amount of $200,000, due on November 30th, 2003. This arrangement amounted to an annual interest rate of approximately 1,300% per year, far above the maximum rate allowable under Canadian law; Gemini's lawsuit is for an amount to reduce the monthly rate to the maximum allowable annual rate of 60% plus 5% per annum on the loan itself in the succeeding months until it was finally paid off . The press release from Silver Ridge made it clear that the company itself is not a party to this lawsuit.

One NEX stock traded more than ten times yesterday: Emergence Resort Canada Inc. [NEX: ERS.H], with 15 trades. ESR.H started trading right after 10 AM ET; the first six trades, conducted in the time period between about 10:08 AM and 11:02 AM ET, were made at a price of 28 cents/share; all six were for 5000 shares each. The price slumped down to 26 cents/share in mid-late afternoon trading, but picked up to 28 cents/share as of about 3:43 PM ET, the price at which the last three trades were made. ERS.H did close at 28 cents/share, down 1 cent/share since Wednesday's close; total volume for it yesterday was 85,500 shares. Emergence took the #3 spot on the top-ten daily-turnover list, found below.

The top percentage gainer in yesterday's trading was the above-mentioned YSV Ventures, which gained 1 cent/share, or 33.33%, thanks to a close at 4 cents/share. The trading of XSV.H was sufficiently voluminous to rank it at #2 in terms of raw volume; as noted above, all of XSV.H's five trades were at that 4 cent/share price. It beat out the #2 gainer, BHR Buffalo Head Resources [NEX: BHR.H], which gained 2.5 cents/share on a single trade of 1000 shares at 14.5 cents/share. The trade in BHR.H was made within three minutes of the close of the trading day.

The top percentage decliner yesterday was Fairchild Investments Ltd. [NEX: FIC.H], which closed at 2 cents/share for a loss of 1.5 cents/share or 42.86%. Although only one trade put FIC.H down to 2 cents/share, it was for 12,000 shares; this trade was enough to set a new NEX low for Fairchild. Its 52-week low, counting the period when it still traded on the Venture (before June 26,) is below 2 cents/share, though.

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

1. Magnate Ventures Inc. [NEX: MGV.H] - 5.32% of total shares outstanding;
2. Challenger Development Corp. [NEX: CDQ.H] - 2.89% of TSO;
3. Emergence Resort Canada Inc. [NEX: ERS.H] - 2.02%;
4. Rose Marie Resources Ltd. [NEX: RSR.H] - 1.69%;
5. SMC Ventures Inc. [NEX: SMV.H] - 0.914%;
6. YSV Ventures Inc. [NEX: XSV.H] - 0.745%;
7. MP Western Properties Inc. [NEX: MPW.H] - 0.321%;
8. Dorato Resources Inc. [NEX: DRI.H] - 0.292%;
9. Lomiko Resources Inc. [NEX: LMR.H] - 0.265%;
10. Rocher Deboule Minerals Corp. [NEX: RD.H] - 0.148%.

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

TSX Nex Home Page