September 18th NEX

In today's NEX trading, the Barrel's Bottom Composite index closed at 87.41, down 0.11 points or 0.126%, from the previous day's close of 87.52. The index sunk in the early morning, and spent most of the day at a trough established by 11 AM ET. By that time, there was only two gainers, with seven decliners that pushed the BBC Index down below 87. The afternoon saw an unusual event, the BBCI remaining unchanged for an hour: between 2 and 3 PM ET, it was exactly the same value, thanks to no NEX stocks changing in price over that time. The troughing ended during the last hour of trading, pulling the BBC Index up above 87. A 5 cent/share gain in Datinvest International Ltd. [NEX: DAI.H] and a 7 cent/share gain in Surge Resources Inc. [NEX: SRH.H], between 3 PM ET and the market's close, were largely responsible for the BBCI closing at a slight loss on the day rather than a substantial one. Another influence is mentioned below.

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

• 10 AM: 87.24
• 11 AM: 86.87
• 12 PM: 86.77
• 1 PM: 86.82
• 2 PM: 86.92
• 3 PM: 86.92
• 4 PM/Close: 87.41

Twenty-six NEX stocks traded today. Of these, 7 advanced, 9 declined and 10 remained unchanged. There were 106 trades. The top trader in terms of raw volume was Rose Marie Resources Ltd. [NEX: RSR.H], with 495,000 shares traded today. This amount resulted from two factors: first of all, the trades tended to have high volumes of shares. All of RSR.H's trades today had five-figure volumes, and one of them had a six-figure volume. Secondly, RSR.H traded twelve times today. Interestingly, all of the trades were at exactly the same price, 11 cents/share, leaving Rose Marie unchanged at the close. The relative lowness of RSR.H's price put it in the #2 slot for value of shares traded today, according to the other Barrel's Bottom report and the TSX Venture closing summary. Monster Uranium Corp. [NEX: MU.H] took the #1 spot, with Rose Marie close behind. Rose Marie also placed first on the top-ten list of volume traded divided by total shares outstanding, found below, with an unusually high double-digit percentage of total (free-trading) shares outstanding traded today. Monster Uranium placed fifth.

There were two news releases from NEX companies that were picked up by Marketwire today. First of all, Treat Systems [NEX: TSZ.H] has announced plans for a change of business, into silver mining. Pursuant to this change, Treat is changing its name to Mega Silver, a change that has already been approved by shareholders at the last annual meeting. According to the report, "Treat intends to re-activate by completing the change of business." It also intends to move from the NEX to Tier 2 of the Venture Exchange. The news release, one not intended to be disseminated to the United States, goes into some detail on the reactivation plan. A much briefer news release comes from Strategic Metals, which also pertains to Treat: Strategic has optioned three properties, the Uno, Jake and Rogue silver properties, to Treat (or Mega Silver.) Payment is to be made in two stages: $200,000 cash and 100,000 shares of Treat upon regulatory approval, and $3 million in "work expenditures" on the properties over two years, with a minimum of $1 million spent in the first year, and 1 million common shares of Treat, for each property that Strategic turns over to Treat.

No NEX companies were mentioned in today's TSX Venture Daily Bulletins.

On the other hand, there were three NEX companies that sent out releases today through Canjex Publishing, as well as one that did so last night. Two of these announcements were for regular news items, including the one from last night: Challenger Development Corp. [NEX: CDQ.H] has taken on a fourth director, Simon Tam, onto its board. Challenger closed unchanged today at 39 cents/share. The other news item, announced this afternoon after trading ended, came from Silvio Ventures [NEX: SIV.H]. Silvio announced that it has broken off talks to acquire Frontenac Ventures, for this reason: "Since entering into the agreement in [principle] on May 23, 2007, the company and Frontenac have been unable to settle certain terms of the definitive agreement for the proposed acquisition." The rest of the release states that Silvio will continue to look for new acquisitions so as to "complete a reactivation transaction," and that it will "immediately" request a rescinding of the trading halt currently in place. This announcement comes within a week of William J. Radvak being appointed CEO and CFO of the company.

The other two releases announced the filing of financial statements. Match Capital [NEX: MHC.H] has filed its interim financial statements [PDF file] and an accompanying M D & A [another PDF file] for the third quarter of this fiscal year. Match had no revenue during the latest quarter, even though it did have some from the same quarter last year. Its loss widened this last quarter, to one cent/share, because of the sale of some marketable securites held by it that had to be marked down. Its working capital has doubled from the same time period last year. Match didn't trade today; its last close, of 28 cents/share, is as of September 10th.

The second set of financial statements comes from the above-mentioned Surge Resources [NEX: SRH.H]. Surge has filed its annual report [PDF file], a separate file containing its audited financial statements [another PDF] and a third file containing its M D & A [yet another PDF file]. Its net loss doubled this year in dollar terms, although both years were reported as losses of 1 cent/share due to rounding. Surge's only revenue came from interest income, which rose somewhat from last fiscal year despite an overall shrinkage of revenue due to there being no gains from sale(s) of assets this year. The main gain in expenses that pushed up the loss was in the "professional fees" account. According to the M D & A, Surge is in the middle of acquiring "a 100% interest in four exploration prospecting licenses granted by the Government of Papua New Guinea" from Transeuro Energy Corp. Once completed, an additional 30 million shares, at a deemed value of $25.5 million or 85 cents/share, will be issued in exchange for the licenses and the associated seismic data, at which point the funds raised from an earlier offering of 12 million "subscription receipts" will be released from escrow. Surge closed at $1.50/share today, up 7 cents/share from yesterday's close. The annual report was disseminated after the close of trading today.

Three NEX stocks traded more than ten times today. The most frequent trader was Rocher Deboule Minerals Inc. [NEX: RD.H], as it was yesterday; today, Rocher traded 28 times. After starting off in the 54-55 cents/share range, RD.H dropped to 50 cents/share by late morning, with an odd-lot trade of 347 shares going for 47 cents/share at about 11:21 AM ET. Two other odd lots went for that same price at about 11:45 and 11:52 AM ET. Interestingly enough, those two lots, of 318 and 217 shares respectively, were bought through the same financial institution: Raymond James. No board-lot-size trade went that low today, although one of 15,000 shares went for 49 cents/share as of about 3:17 PM ET. Despite the hang-around at the 50-cent/share level for most of the day, a single board lot (500 shares) went for 54 cents/share at about 3:20 PM ET. Since this trade was the last of the day, Rocher managed to close unchanged. Rocher made #8 on the top-ten list of volume traded as measured by daily turnover, found below.

The other two NEX stocks that traded more than ten times today are both mentioned above: Rose Marie, with 12 trades, and Surge Resources with 11. Rose Marie's flatlining in terms of price has already been noted above. Surge also flatlined for most of the day, at $1.40/share, until two trades, of 3,000 and 5,000 shares respectively, at $1.43/share, were made at about 1:41 and 2:42 PM. These two were followed by one more at $1.40; the last trade, of 1,000 shares, pushed the price up to the day's closing of $1.50/share. Surge made #10 on the top-ten daily-turnover list found just below.

The top percentage gainer in today's trading was Electrohome Limited class 'Y' non-voting [NEX: ELL.K], which closed at 15 cents/share for a gain of 5 cents/share or 50% on the day. One trade of 15,000 shares, at about 9:44 AM, put ELL.K on the top of the gainers list.

The top percentage decliner for today was Global Tree Technologies Inc. [NEX: GTT.H], which closed at 1.5 cents/share for a loss of 0.5 cents/share or 25%. As with Electrohome, one trade in GTT.H did it: 25,000 shares of Global Tree at about 11:19 AM ET.

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] - 12.9% of total shares outstanding;
2. Magnate Ventures Inc. [NEX: MGV.H] - 1.16% of TSO;
3. Avigo Resources Corp. [NEX: TMX.H] - 1.10%;
4. BHR Buffalo Head Resources Ltd. [NEX: BHR.H] - 1.04%;
5. Monster Uranium Corp. [NEX: MU.H] - 0.910%;
6. Focus Ventures Ltd. [NEX: FCV.H] - 0.541%;
7. Golden Hat Resources Inc. [NEX: GHA.H] - 0.525%;
8. Rocher Deboule Minerals Corp. [NEX: RD.H] - 0.452%;
9. Datinvest International Ltd. [NEX: DAI.H] - 0.288%;
10. Surge Resources Inc. [NEX: SRH.H] - 0.228%.

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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September 17th NEX

[Correction Notice: In the original version of this report, there were a few "Friday"s which should have been "today"s. Apologies to anyone who was misled.]

In today's NEX trading, the Barrel's Bottom Composite index closed at 87.52, down 0.21 points or 0.160% from the previous day's close of 87.66. For most of the morning, the BBC Index was almost dead even with yesterday's closing figure, even though there were several gainers and decliners by 11 AM. This balance tipped towards the positive, thanks in part to a 4.5 cent rise in ITI World Investment Group Inc. [NEX: IWI.H] and a 2-cent rise in Abitibi Mining Corp. [NEX: ABB.H] when they began trading today. Since both started between 11 AM and 12 PM ET, the effect was felt on the BBCI in late morning. The BBCI also marked time through most of the afternoon after reaching that noontime plateau. Had it not been for a spill in the last hour of trading today, the index would have closed in positive territory. Instead, in part due to spills in both 222 Pizza Express Corp. [NEX: PIZ.H] and Surge Resources Inc. [NEX: SRH.H], the BBCI ended the trading day with a small loss to close at 87.52. Surge closed at $1.43/share, down 7 cents/share since yesterday's close. 222 Pizza had more of a spill, of which more below.

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

• 10 AM: 87.66
• 11 AM: 87.67
• 12 PM: 87.93
• 1 PM: 87.81
• 2 PM: 87.86
• 3 PM: 87.89
• 4 PM/Close: 87.52

Thirty NEX stocks traded today. Of these, 9 advanced, 8 declined and 13 remained unchanged. There were only 78 trades. The top trader in terms of raw volume was 222 Pizza Express Corp.[NEX:PIZ.H], with an unusually high volume of 462,000 shares. The three trades that put 222 Pizza on the top of the raw-volume list were all made within two minutes of the close, and all had the same sell-side financial institution: HBSC. All three, which went for an unusually low price of 1 cent/share, seem to be part of a block that was dumped. That same 1 cent/share price was, of course, PIZ.H's closing price; it was down 2 cents/share on the day. The other Barrel's Bottom report and the TSX Venture closing summary for today have Rocher Deboule Minerals Corp. [NEX: RD.H] in the #1 spot for value of shares traded. Rocher made the top of the latter list despite it being halted from trading until 12 PM ET. 222 Pizza placed first on the the top-ten list of volume traded divided by total shares outstanding, found below; Rocher placed seventh.

There was one news release from a NEX company that was picked up by Marketwire today: Rocher Deboule cleared up the confusion surrounding a demand from Skid'm def Hoya't (Wayne Campbell) that got RD.H halted early Friday morning. According to the company's press release, Mr. Campbell had consulted for Rocher and had gotten paid for his efforts. He then sent in some additional invoices, which the company asked him to substantiate. Instead of doing so, he claimed that Rocher had intruded upon the Traditional Territory of the House of Nika'teen. In addition, the press release said that each band had already been consulted about Rocher's activity on or near their traditional territories, including the House of Nika'teen itself. This news got Rocher Deboule up once it hit the wires, even though RD.H closed down 2 cents/share at 54 cents/share. Today's volume was 99,200 shares.

Three NEX companies were mentioned in today's TSX Venture Daily Bulletins. First of all, Earthramp Communications [NEX: ERA.H] has changed its name to Champlain Resources Inc. [NEX: CPL.H], and will be trading under the new name and symbol starting tomorrow. Secondly, Rocher Deboule got mentioned as having the halt lifted, as of noon today EST. Thirdly and finally, a correction to an earlier bulletin was issued for YSV Ventures [NEX: XSV.H]. It specified that 500,000 shares of YSV issued to Insight Exploration Inc. was not specifically for repayment of debt, but for a now-lapsed property option agreement. This earlier news release, from July 26th, explains further. (The same release also announced the resignation of the then-CEO.)

There were two NEX companies that sent out releases today through Canjex Publishing. The first, eTV Technology Inc.. [NEX: ETV.H], filed a total of three interim financial statements, one for each of the first three quarters of this fiscal year with accompanying M D & As for each, and one set of audited annual financial statements for 2004 to 2006 with two accompanying M D & As. eTV is currently under suspension, and it looks like management is getting the issues out of the way so as to get the stock trading again. eTV has not taken in any operating income for the time period covered by all the statements. It has, though, scaled down its expenses for the most recent quarter from the previous year's quarter due to a reduction in legal fees paid out. Cash in hand is minimal: $100 as of June 30th according to the third quarter interim statement. The accumulated deficit exceeds shareholder capital, giving eTV a negative book value of (284,339), or -2.5 cents/share according to that same third quarter interim financial statement.

The second NEX company that released news through Canjex was Benem Ventures Inc. [NEX: BNM.H], which has appointed D. Barry Lee to its board of directors. The accompanying press release contains Mr. Lee's CV. Benem is curently halted, and has been so since mid-August of 2006. The press release suggests that it's for want of a qualifying transaction, which is expected to be the acquisition of the "Haskin and Cassiar moly mineral claims."

One NEX stock traded more than ten times today: the above-mentioned Rocher Deboule. Despite Rocher not being tradeable on the NEX before noon ET, it was still the issue with the most numerous amount of trades: sixteen of them. Four were made right at noon sharp, and two more were made within twenty-three minutes of trading resumption. By about 12:23 PM, RD.H was at 52 cents/share. The above-mentioned release, though, stopped this decline and reversed it for some time today: except for an odd-lot-sized trade of 200 shares at 58 cents/share, the high point for RD.H today was at about 2:52 PM ET, when it reached 56 cents/share. The buying pressure ended by that time, however, leaving the stock to sink back 2 cents in later afternoon trading to close at 54 cents/share.

The top percentage gainer in today's trading was ITI World Investment Group Inc. [NEX: IWI.H]. It closed at 37 cents/share, for a gain of five cents/share or 15.63% on the day. Four trades did it, with the first one being the largest: 20,000 shares at 36.5 cents/share at about 11:38 AM ET. All four trades were spaced out during the day, despite the prices being in a tight range of 36.5 to 37 cents. ITI's close, with daily volume of 29,500 shares, touched its 52-week high. It placed eighth on the top-ten list by daily turnover, found just below.

The top percentage decliner for today was the above-mentioned 222 Pizza Express Corp. [NEX: PIZ.H], which lost 66.67% on the day. As noted above, PIZ.H closed at 1 cent/share for a loss of 2 cents/share from Friday's close.

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

1. 222 Pizza Express Corp. [NEX: PIZ.H] - 3.08% of total shares outstanding;
2. Magnate Ventures Inc. [NEX: MGV.H] - 1.62% of TSO;
3. Focus Ventures Ltd. [NEX: FCV.H] - 1.55%;
4. MP Western Properties Inc. [NEX: MPW.H] - 0.990%;
5. Gainey Resources Ltd. [NEX: GRD.H] - 0.778%;
6. Lomiko Resources Inc. [NEX: LMR.H] - 0.698%;
7. Rocher Deboule Minerals Corp. [NEX: RD.H] - 0.473%;
8. ITI World Investment Group Inc. [NEX: IWI.H] - 0.258%;
9. Emergence Resort Canada Inc. [NEX: ERS.H] - 0.189%;
10. Gold Star Resources Corp. [NEX: GXX.H] - 0.131%.

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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Notice of Redaction

The redaction I announced early Saturday morning is now finished. It turned out to be more comprehensive than I had originally thought necessary - in fact, it turned into an overhaul of all results since July 3rd. As a result, it took me a lot longer than I had anticipated, and had altered the absolute value of the Barrel's Bottom Composite Index by about 0.6-points-or-so downwards. So, the graphs that were imbedded in last week's reports all had to go.

Given the nature of the redaction, though, the day-to-day relative changes in the BBCI weren't affected that much. I found that simply substituting the new numbers for the old, with the surrounding text unchanged, sufficed. The needed adjustment of the weightings turned out to have that effect.

As the earlier version of this entry specified, the next report will be up tonight. Once the text and the numbers are ready, I'll post the entry and then add the graph when it's done. As also specified, this last sweep is the final one. Unless I'm in for some startling revelation, this last redaction sweep will suffice.

September 14th NEX

[Note: In the last correction sweep, I forgot to change Friday's closing figure in the opening sentence; this mistake has now been corrected. Apologies to any who were misled.]


In Friday's NEX trading, the Barrel's Bottom Composite index closed at 87.66, up 0.21 points or 0.239% from the previous day's close of 87.45. The pattern that the BBC Index followed on Thursday, of marking time throughout the day, continued on Friday. After opening at about the same level as its Thursday closing, the BBCI sunk slightly. A noon erasure of the loss didn't hold for the early afternoon; it wasn't until the last hour of trading that the BBCI climbed back into positive territory.

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

• 10 AM: 87.44
• 11 AM: 87.32
• 12 PM: 87.51
• 1 PM: 87.27
• 2 PM: 87.28
• 3 PM: 87.40
• 4 PM/Close: 87.66

Forty-one NEX stocks traded Friday. Of these, 13 advanced, 13 declined and 15 remained unchanged. There were 132 trades. The top trader in terms of raw volume was SMC Ventures Inc. [NEX:SMV.H], with an unusually high volume of 494,224 shares. Seven of the ten trades in SMV, comprising 477,000 shares, took place at exactly the same time: about 10:54 AM ET. All of these trades had RBC as the sell-side financial institution. Given that the last of these seven had pushed the price of SMV.H down seven cents from Thursday's close, and that the price of the stock recovered partially later in the day, it's apparent that a large block of SMC was gotten rid of late Friday morning. (The next trade also had RBC as the sell-side institution, but it was for an odd lot of 224 shares and went about eighteen minutes after the first seven.) Those seven trades ranged from 14.5 cents/share to the above-mentioned 12.5 cents/share. SMV.H closed at 15 cents/share, down 4.5 cents/share from Thursday's close. Despite that drop, it stayed within a trading range that's held for most of the year. It didn't make a 52-week low even at the lowest-priced trade of the day.

The other Barrel's Bottom report and the TSX Venture closing summary for yesterday have SMC also at #1 in terms of value of shares traded. In addition to those other firsts, SMC placed first on the the top-ten list of volume traded divided by total shares outstanding, found below.

There was one news release from a NEX company that was picked up by Marketwire on Friday, announcing a change in the CEO of Pan Terra Industries [NEX: PNT.H]. The old President, Don Sandford, resigned and was replaced by Aaron Lane. In addition, Pan Terra has a new director on its board, Tony Pezzotti. The company's stock remains suspended, pending the finishing up of a corporate reorganization.

There was also an announcement by Rocher Deboule [NEX: RD.H] in yesterday's TSX Venture Daily Bulletins, which was the only one for a NEX company in that digest. It announced a halt in trading of RD.H pending a further announcement from the company. As it turns out, there's a bit of a story behind that innocuous announcement, which was fleshed out by members of Stockhouse as posted on Stockhouse's "Bull Board" for Rocher Deboule. Specifically, a spokesperson for the "House of Nikat'een" is claiming that "possibly two or three drilling holes are located on Nikat'een Traditional Territory" and that more may be too. The press release, which was posted by "thebeun" within an hour of the halt at the RD.H forum, also contains the demand that Rocher's "[drilling] operations also cease until we are consulted." The author of this release is "Skid'm def Hoya't (Wayne Campbell), Spokesperson for Wilps Nikat'een." The halt was announced at 10:15 AM ET. RD.H had traded three times as of then; the last trade before the halt put the stock down 2 cents/share for a price of 56 cents/share.

There were two NEX companies that sent out releases Friday through Canjex Publishing. The first, Network Exploration Ltd. [NEX: NET.H], sent out three releases. The first one announced that Network has now qualified for a listing on Tier 2 of the Venture Exchange, so it's leaving the NEX. The second release announced that Network's symbol will be changed to NET, as is customary for stocks that move to Tier 2: it's normal to just drop the ".H". The third release announced a private placement of 4,297,000 units at a price of 20 cents/unit. Each unit contains one share and a warrant to purchase a common share at 25 cents/share for a period of 1 year. NET.H's final close on the NEX was at 20.5 cents/share with 12,500 shared traded.

The second NEX company that released news through Canjex was Challenger Development Corp. [NEX: CDQ.H], which announced a private placement of its own. 6,666,667 units, comprising one common share and a warrant to purchase another with strike price of 10 cents/share, were sold for 7.5 cents/unit. The reason for the unit price being way below CDQ's Friday closing price of 39 cents/share was the placement being negotiated as of April 19th of this year. The closing price of Challenger as of that day was 13.5 cents/share; the stock had traded during only 9 trading days in the entire month of April, and only 10 trading days in the months of January to March. Only about 130,000 shares of Challenger had traded during the entire three-and-a-half month stretch between January 2nd and April 18th. As also mentioned in the release, the number of units actually sold were little more than half of the 12 million that were originally intended to be sold. According to the company, this reduction resulted from "[a] subsequent decrease in the number of subscriptions for units," making the proceeds from the placement equal to exactly $500,000. The funds are earmarked for these purposes: "exploration programs, mineral -- $210,000; acquisition, additional mineral exploration property -- $75,000; exploration programs on additional mineral exploration property -- $75,000; debt payments -- $30,500; and working capital -- $109,500." Any funds received due to exercise of the warrants will be used solely for working capital.

One NEX stock traded more than ten times on Friday: the same Challenger just mentioned above. (As mentioned earlier, SMC Ventures was one trade below this threshold.) CDQ.H actually didn't trade at all until about 2:52 PM ET; 11 of the 13 trades were made in the last hour of trading. The first five trades saw the price of CDQ.H inch up to 40 cents/share, but the subsequent eight were made at the price of 39 cents/share, which left Challenger unchanged from Thursday's close. Friday's volume for CDQ.H was 76,000 shares. Challenger placed at #6 on the top-ten list by daily turnover, found below.

The top percentage gainer in Friday's trading was Pacific Wildcat Resources Corp., with a gain of 7.5 cents/share or 45.54% to close at 26 cents/share. Three trades did it, all of which were made at the same time of about 11:28 AM ET; the buy-side financial institution for all three trades was Raymond James. The first trade was for 500 shares at 24 cents/share, the second was for 1500 shares at 25 cents/share and the third was for 25,000 shares at the closing price of 26 cents/share. Evidently, these trades were part of a bought block of 27,000 shares that were snapped up by an eager buyer. Pacific Wildcat closed at 4 cents below its 52-week high and 8.5 cents above its 52-week low.

The top percentage decliner for Friday was the above-mentioned SMC Ventures [NEX: SMV.H], which lost 23.08% on the day. As noted above, SMV.H closed at 15 cents/share for a loss of 4.5 cents/share.

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

1. SMC Ventures Inc. [NEX: SMV.H] - 8.99% of total shares outstanding;
2. Rose Marie Resources Ltd. [NEX: RSR.H] - 1.96% of TSO;
3. Arcland Resources Inc. [NEX: ADR.H] - 1.34%;
4. Avigo Resources Corp. [NEX: TMX.H] - 0.720%;
5. Gainey Resources Ltd. [NEX: GRD.H] - 0.648%;
6. Challenger Development Corp. [NEX: CDQ.H] - 0.603%;
7. Gold Star Resources Corp. [NEX: GXX.H] - 0.588%;
8. Isee3d Inc. [NEX: ICT.H] - 0.382%;
9. Global Tree Technologies Inc. [NEX: GTT.H] - 0.294%;
10. Emergence Resort Canada Inc. [NEX: ERS.H] - 0.272%

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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September 13th NEX

In yesterday's NEX trading, the Barrel's Bottom Composite index closed at 87.45, up 0.26 points or 0.298% from the previous day's close of 87.19. The BBC Index treaded water for the morning, after opening slightly lower from the previous day's close. After a slight rise in the early afternoon, the BBCI sunk back down to morning levels until the last hour of trading. Helped in large part by a 5-cent/share rise in Maximum Ventures Inc. [NEX: MVI.H] and a 2.5 cent/share rise in E.G. Capital Inc. [NEX: EGC.H] between 3 PM ET and the close, the BBCI went from slightly negative territory to above the break-even point, to finish the trading day at 87.45. Maximum closed at 65 cents/share, up that same 5 cents/share, and E.G. closed at 13 cents/share, up that same 2.5 cents/share.

One of the unusual aspects of yesterday's trading was the first trade in Alcor Resources [NEX: ACZ.H] since its 4-for-1 split as of August 16th. [That split's mentioned in the bottom bulletin of the TSX Venture Daily Bulletins for August 15th.] Since Alcor had last closed at 43 cents/share, pre-split, its new base price was (post-split) 0.1075 cents/share. So, the first of yesterday's three trades in ACZ.H, 14,500 shares at 11.5 cents/share, pushed Alcor up 0.75 cent/share. ACZ.H closed at 12 cents/share, up one-and-a-quarter pennies per share.

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

• 10 AM: 87.08
• 11 AM: 87.08 [lower than 10 AM's value, but equalized due to rounding off.]
• 12 PM: 87.04
• 1 PM: 87.26
• 2 PM: 87.10
• 3 PM: 87.12
• 4 PM/Close: 87.45

Thirty-seven NEX stocks traded yesterday. Of these, 10 advanced, 8 declined and 19 remained unchanged. There were 121 trades. The top trader in terms of raw volume was Rose Marie Resources Ltd.; it closed at 11 cents/share for a gain of 1.5 cents/share on the day, with volume of 262,250 shares. The other Barrel's Bottom report and the TSX Venture closing summary for yesterday have Rose Marie at a close #2 in terms of value of shares traded. The top spot in the latter category was taken up by Challenger Development Corp., which closed unchanged at 39 cents/share with volume of 79,000 shares. This volume put Challlenger at a not-so-close #2 on the raw-volume list. Rose Marie placed first on the the top-ten list of volume traded divided by total shares outstanding, found below, and Challenger placed third.

It was a slow news day for NEX companies. There were no news release from any NEX company that was picked up by Marketwire yesterday, nor were there any mention of NEX companies in yesterday's TSX Venture Daily Bulletins. The only release through Canjex Publishing was from Silvio Ventures Inc. [NEX: SIV.H], announcing a change in Silvio's CEO and CFO. The new person holding both spots is William J. Radvak, who's replacing former CEO/CFO Ross Wilmot. SIV.H remains under suspension; it hasn't traded since May 23rd of this year.

Another company whose trading has been halted, Infinite Resources, did not resume trading yesterday: its statements have not yet been filed with the B.C. Securities Commission. To recap from the Barrel's Bottom report for Sept. 12th NEX trading, this suspension went into effect immediately, and it hasn't been reinstated as of yet even though the financials have been released to the public. (The original Sept. 12th report was unclear on this last point.)

Two NEX stocks traded more than ten times yesterday. The most frequent trader was the above-mentioned Rose Marie Resources, with 15 trades. Except for an odd-lot trade of 250 shares at 9.5 cents/share at about 9:45 AM ET, Rose Marie traded only at 11 cents/share and 11.5 cents/share yesterday. Five of the trades were at 11.5 cents/share, and nine were at 11 cents/share. The 11.5-cent'ers were clustered in early morning trading.

The other stock was Challenger Development, also mentioned above, with 14 trades. Like Rose Marie, Challenger's trading was basically flat through the day: except for one trade of 10,000 shares at 39.5 cents/share and another of 10,000 shares at 38 cents/share, all of them were made at 39 cents/share. The 38-cent'er was the first trade of the day, and the 39.5-cent'er was the third-last. Unusually, all of the trades in CDQ.H, except for the last of the day, were for either 5,000 or 10,000 shares: eleven out of the fourteen had 5,000-share volumes. That last trade was for 4,000 shares at 39 cents/share, and was made at about 2:52 PM ET.

The top percentage gainer in yesterday's trading was the above-mentioned E.G. Capital, with a gain of 2.5 cents/share or 23.81%. One trade almost at the closing - specifically, of 9,000 shares at a price of 13 cents/share at about 3:59 PM ET - put E.G. in the top gainer's spot. EGC.H traded twice yesterday, but the other one was odd-lot size: 3 shares.

The top percentage decliner for yesterday was Mazarin Inc. [NEX: MAZ.H], which lost 1 cent/share or 15.39% to close at 5.5 cents/share. Two board-lot-sixed trades in MAZ.H did it - specifically, the second, which pushed Mazarin down from unchanged to a decline of a penny per share. The third and final trade was at a price of 3.5 cents/share, but it was odd-lot size: 220 shares.

Finally, that 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] - 6.84% of total shares outstanding;
2. Magnate Ventures Inc. [NEX: MGV.H] - 2.31% of TSO;
3. Challenger Development Corp. [NEX: CDQ.H] - 0.627%;
4. Consolidated Global Cable Systems Inc. [NEX: GCS.H] - 0.615%;
5. Gainey Resources Ltd. [NEX: GRD.H] - 0.519%;
6. Gold Star Resources Corp. [NEX: GXX.H] - 0.509%;
7. Network Exploration Ltd. class 'A' [NEX: NET.H] - 0.386%;
8. ITI World Investment Group Inc. [NEX: IWI.H] - 0.262%;
9. HLD Land Development Limited Partnership [NEX: HLD.UN.H] - 0.192%;
10. Citadel Gold Mines Inc. [NEX: CGM.H] - 0.192% [it's slighly lower than HLD.UN.H's, but was rounded off to the same number.]

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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September 12th NEX

In yesterday's NEX trading, the Barrel's Bottom Composite index closed at 87.19, down 0.30 points or 0.343% from the previous day's close of 87.49. The stock that headlined yesterday's report, Maximum Ventures Inc. [NEX: MVI.H], pulled back yesterday. This drop didn't affect the entire BBC Index that much until the last hour of trading, though, when the latter dropped 0.84 points. For the rest of the day, the BBCI was up from Tuesday's close. The initial rise was largely due to strong openings in both Rocher Deboule Minerals Corp. [NEX: RD.H] and Toba Industries Ltd. [NEX: TBG.H]. After sinking back to barely above yesterday's closing level, the index rebounded in mid-afternoon, in part because of a secondary recovery in MVI.H but also because of a temporary upsurge in RD.H. As the afternoon wore on, the disappearance of the influence of those two gain-inducers was compensated for by a broadening of the gainers. In the end, though, a plummet in MVI.H from 70 cents/share as of 3 PM ET to 60 cents/share at the close pulled the BBCI from a gain of more than half a point to a loss of three-tenths.

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

• 10 AM: 87.94
• 11 AM: 87.67
• 12 PM: 87.65
• 1 PM: 87.63
• 2 PM: 88.07
• 3 PM: 88.03
• 4 PM/Close: 87.19

Forty-one NEX stocks traded yesterday. Of these, 13 advanced, 11 declined and 17 remained unchanged. There were 162 trades. The top trader in terms of raw volume was Toba Industries, which closed at 13 cents/share for a gain of 1.5 cents/share on the day with volume of 212,500 shares. The other Barrel's Bottom report and the TSX Venture closing summary for yesterday have Toba at #4 in terms of value of shares traded. The top spot in the latter category was taken up by Maximum Ventures, which closed at 60 cents/share, down 15 cents/share from Tuesday's close. Toba placed ninth on the the top-ten list of volume traded divided by total shares outstanding, found below, and Maximum didn't place at all.

One NEX company was mentioned in yesterday's TSX Venture Exchange Daily Bulletins, because trading in it has been suspended. Infinite Resources Inc. [NEX: INF.H] has been halted by request of the B.C. Securities Commission because Infinite didn't file any financial statements [with them] for the last quarter. It'll remain suspended until it does. INF.H didn't trade at all yesterday, even though the order was issued in the early afternoon.

There was one news release from a NEX company that was picked up by Marketwire yesterday, issued at 3:44 PM ET. Isee3d [NEX: ICT.H] has closed $290,000 of a planned $1.5 million private placement, which cannot be completed in its entirety until Isee3d has moved back to Tier 2 of the Venture Exchange, which it plans to do. Once done, a further $1 million will be raised. Central to the plan to get back on the Venture is the reactivation of Isee3d's business - specifically, the commercialization of some 3-D stereoscopic imaging patents it holds. The completed tranche of the private placement involved the sale of 966,667 units; each unit was composed of one common share and a warrant to purchase a common share at 50 cents/share for a timeframe of one year. Two insider companies subscribed to the placement: Lirojen Enterprises Ltd. for 133,333 units, and PanLiant Financial Corp. for 166,667 units.

Two NEX companies were the subjects of other releases distributed by Canjex Publishing. The first, from Earthramp.com Communications Inc. [NEX: ERA.H], states that the company has granted options for as much as 1.83 million common shares "to certain officers, directors and a consultant of the corporation." Each option has a strike price of 10 cents/share, and all of them have a five-year lifespan. ERA.H closed at 7.5 cents/share yesterday, down 1.5 cents from the previous close established on August 2nd. This close made for a new 52-week low for Earthramp.

The second release came from Infinite Resources [NEX: INF.H]: its interim financial statements [PDF file] and M D & A [another PDF file] for the second quarter of 2007 were filed. According to the former document, which has not been reviewed by an auditor, Infinite lost 1 cent/share for the quarter, as compared with a 1 cents/share loss in the second quarter of 2006. It had no revenue in the quarter, so the loss resulted from expenses incurred in keeping the company ticking over. The biggest quarterly expense was "management fees," in the amount of $7,500. This quarterly charge is unchanged since the second quarter of 2006. What has changed in Infinity's financials, though, is that it has run out of cash. Its net cash position is a deficit of $2,368 in bank indebtedness; the balance-sheet entry for the asset "Cash" is zero. Book value is -18.1 cents/share, worsening slightly from -17.6 cents/share as of the second quarter of 2006. The accompany M D & A warns that the company, in order to follow through on its intention to "seek new acquisitions and opportunities in both the mineral and petroleum sectors," is going to need new equity financing. The number of shares outstanding, according to the financial statement, was unchanged over the last 12 months, indicating that no equity financing has come through in the last year. Except for Bank Indebtedness, the liabilities have changed little too, indicating that no new debt financing has been secured for any such project in the last 12 months either. Infinite's stock didn't trade at all yesterday; the last day that INF.H traded was August 28th, in which it closed at 18 cents/share. The 52-week high for INF.H is 20 cents/share; the 52-week low is 13 cents/share.

Four NEX stocks traded more than ten times yesterday. Like the day before, the most numerous trader yesterday was Rocher Deboule, with 16 trades. Twelve of those sixteen were at the closing price of 55 cents/share. Of the other four, two were at 57 cents/share and two were at 52 cents/share. The 57-cent'ers were made in the early afternoon. The 52-cent'ers, both of which were odd-lot sized, were made in the mid-to-late afternoon. The 57 cent'ers were both multiples of board lots in volume. RD.H was up 3 cents/share on the day; it made #8 on the top-ten daily-turnover list, found below

The second-most numerous trader was Maximum Ventures, as was the case Tuesday. MVI.H traded 15 times yesterday. As indicated above, Maximum spent almost all of the day sliding downwards: all but two of those 14 trades were either at or below the price of the previous trade. The first seven were made within four minutes of the open; 5 of those were made right at the open. All of those first five were for 74 cents/share, and the subsequent two were for 75 cents/share. By late morning, though, MVI.H had dropped to 70 cents/share. After a further slump to 65 cents/share between 12:47 and 12:49 PM ET, Maximum recovered to 70 cents until the last trade of the day of 1,000 shares at 60 cents/share. MVI.H's total volume for yesterday was 80,100 shares.

There was a two-way tie for the third-most-numerous-trader category yesterday; each of the two issues had 12 trades. The first was the same as the third placer on Tuesday: Network Exploration Ltd. class 'A' [NEX: NET.H]. After one odd-lot trade which began its trading, as of about 11:13 AM ET, NET.H advanced to 21.5 cents/share and stayed there between 11:46 AM and 12:10 PM ET. It then declined for the rest of the day to close at 20 cents/share, down 1 cent/share on the day. Network made #5 on the top-ten list of volume divided by total outstanding shares, found below.

The other stock with 12 trades, the above-mentioned Isee3d, acted like a real "odd ball" in yesterday's trading. Despite it tying third in number of trades, its total daily volume for yesterday was a mere 1,188 shares. All of those trades in ICT.H were odd-lot sized; the largest was for 333 shares. So, formally, the co-holder of the third largest number of trades closed unchanged because none of the trades could have changed the closing price. (By convention, a a trade less than a board-lot size doesn't change the officially-reported price.) So, Isee3d held its closing price of 37 cents/share yesterday.

The top percentage gainer in yesterday's trading was Cantrell Capital Corp. [NEX: CLJ.H], which closed at 8 cents/share for a gain of 3 cents/share or 60% over the previous close (at August 22nd) of 5 cents/share. Two trades totaling 2,000 shares did it. The first, of 1,000 shares at 7 cents/share as of about 10:41 AM ET, was followed by the second and final trade of 1,000 shares at the closing price a little less than an hour later.

The top percentage decliner for yesterday was Global Tree Technologies Inc. [NEX: GTT.H], which fell back to 1.5 cents/share for a loss of 0.5 cents/share or 25%. One board-lot sized trade in GTT.H did it; the other, of odd-lot size, was made at 0.5 cents/share.

Finally, that 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] - 3.52% of total shares outstanding;
2. Gold Star Resources Corp. [NEX: GXX.H] - 2.48% of TSO;
3. Avigo Resources Corp. [NEX: TMX.H] - 0.744%;
4. Arcland Resources Inc. [NEX: ADR.H] - 0.555%;
5. Network Exploration Ltd. class 'A' [NEX: NET.H] - 0.548%;
6. Lomiko Resources Inc. [NEX: LMR.H] - 0.515%;
7. IDG Holdings Inc. [NEX: IDH.H] - 0.477%;
8. Rocher Deboule Minerals Corp. [NEX: RD.H] - 0.404%;
9. Toba Industries Ltd. [NEX: TBG.H] - 0.388%;
10. Galleria Opportunities Inc. [NEX: GOI.H] - 0.362%.

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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September 11th NEX

In yesterday's NEX trading, the Barrel's Bottom Composite index closed at 87.49, up 2.80 points or 3.31% from the previous day's close of 84.69. This rise is one of the highest, percentage-wise, that the Barrel's Bottom Composite has experienced since its re-inception at the beginning of July: the last hour of trading saw the index jump up more than a point. Largely responsible for this leap was the stock of Maximum Ventures Inc. [NEX: MVI.H] more than doubling during the day. After not trading at all until about 1:53 PM, MVI.H shot up to close at 75 cents/share, up 41 cents/share from the previous day's close. As might be expected, there was a news release from Maximum that explains this upsurge: "Maximum litigant Western's Saddle licence is valid." The chair of the Mineral Resources and Petroleum Authority of Mongolia reassured foreign owners of suspended property-exploration licenses that they would be reinstated in a different category, provided that the companies who owned them re-apply and follow through on specified exploration committments rather than merely moving in on areas already (in some cases partially) explored by government workers. (In other words, the licenses - analogous to claims on properties in North America - cannot be sat on, or used to revitalize government-explored areas without spending further dollars on exploration in such properties.) The allaying of this uncertainty in the Mongolian mining sector for non-Mongolian companies propelled MVI.H upwards, as Maximum is suing Western Prospector Group Ltd. "and others for, among other things, ownership of all or a portion of the Saddle Hills uranium deposit located in Mongolia." That statement from the Mongolian chair removed a major part of the risk of Maximum winning a Pyrrhic victory through winning the lawsuit, as Western had announced as of Aug. 20th that its license for that Mongolian property, "covering part of the Gurvanbulag uranium deposit at the Saddle Hills project in Mongolia," had been cancelled. The release in question was disseminated by Canjex Publishing as of 2:41 PM ET, and by Marketwire as of 2:46 PM ET. As noted above, MVI.H started trading at about 1:53 PM. The last trade made before the release of the news was for 7500 shares at 50 cents/share, up 16 cents from the previous close as of last Friday. The release of the announcement propelled the stock up another 25 cents/share by the time trading had closed. MVI.H had reached its 52-week low of 20.5 cents/share as of Aug. 22nd; it's still far below its 52-week high of $1.40/share, reached on January 17th.

Maximum wasn't the only NEX stock that surged up yesterday. Other gainers of note were Rocher Deboule Minerals Corp. [NEX: RD.H], which closed at 52 cents/share for a gain of 9 cents/share. Network Exploration Ltd. class 'A' [NEX: NET.H] also posted a solid day's gain, of 4 cents/share, to close at 21 cents/share. These three stocks, but most particularly MVI.H, explain the paradoxical combination of a huge gain in the BBC Index with declines outnumbering advances by a two-to-one margin. 6 stocks posted declines of more than 10% yesterday.

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

• 10 AM: 84.33
• 11 AM: 85.33
• 12 PM: 85.36
• 1 PM: 85.36 [only minisculely lower than 12 PM's value.]
• 2 PM: 86.02
• 3 PM: 86.07
• 4 PM/Close: 87.49

Thirty-eight NEX stocks traded yesterday. Of these, 7 advanced, 14 declined and 17 remained unchanged. There were 159 trades. The top trader in terms of raw volume was the above-mentioned Rocher Deboule, which rocketed back yesterday from Monday's plunge. The other Barrel's Bottom report and the TSX Venture closing summary for yesterday show Rocher also taking the top spot in terms of value of shares traded, as it did on Monday. It placed #6 on the top-ten list of volume traded divided by total shares outstanding, found below.

One NEX company was mentioned in yesterday's TSX Venture Exchange Daily Bulletins: International X-Chequer Resources Inc. [NEX: IXR.H], which secured a private placement of 3,415,466 units at 30 cents/unit. Each unit consists of one share and a warrant to purchase a share at an exercise price of 40 cents/share for a period of one year. In addition, X-Chequer has purchased an option to buy some claims in the Maroon Mountain area, Skeena Mining Division, in the Province of British Columbia: Maroon Claim #1 and Claims 1 to 4. Also mentioned in the X-Chequer bulletin is the company's qualification for a listing on Tier 2 of the Venture Exchange, starting today. As of the opening of trading, IXR.H is gone from the NEX. Its final day of trading on the NEX Board saw it close at 72 cents, unchanged from last Monday's close. The two trades in it were both odd-lot sized, so they didn't affect the official closing price. Those two trades, of 50 and 41 shares each, were both made at 57 cents/share.

Other than the Maximum release, there were no releases picked up by Marketwire from NEX companies yesterday. Two were the subjects of other releases distributed by Canjex, though. The first, from Network Exploration Ltd. [NEX: NET.H], announced exchange approval of a private placement of 4,297,000 units at a price of 20 cents/unit. Each unit contains one common share and one warrant, good for the purchase of a common share, for 25 cents with a life of one year. This approval is part of the process of Network moving to Tier 2 of the Venture, which is expected to take place next week. NET.H closed at 21 cents/share, up 4 cents since Monday's close. The second release, from Citadel Gold Mines Inc. [NEX.CGM.H], announced the appointment of Randy Korell to its board of directors. CGM.H didn't trade yesterday; its most recent close, as of Sept. 6th, was at 8 cents/share.

Three NEX stocks traded more than ten times yesterday; two of them were mentioned in the BBCI section above. The most numerous was Rocher Deboule, with 21 trades yesterday. The first trade was an odd-lot-sized one of 400 shares at 47 cents/share; all twenty others were above 50 cents/share. By about 10:30 AM ET, RD.H had leapt up to 55 cents/share, and reached the high for the day three minutes later. From that level, it sunk to 50 cents/share, reached at about 11:12 AM ET, and then climbed back up (with the exception of another odd-lot trade as of 12:27 PM ET.) The earlier exuberance did not return, though, despite the trade rate picking up in the last hour and a half of trading. As mentioned above, RD.H closed at 52 cents/share.

The second-most numerous trader, Maximum Ventures, had a much more unambiguous rise. Starting from 45 cents/share as of 1:53 PM ET, it kept climbing and almost never looked back. Only one of the 18 trades in it yesterday went for a lower price than the previous one; all the others were either the at the same or a higher price than the previous trade. As mentioned above, MVI.H closed at 75 cents/share. Perhaps surprisingly, Maximum didn't place on the top-ten daily-turnover list, found below.

Third in the most-numerous-trades category was another riser that was mentioned above: Network Exploration. NET.H traded 12 times yesterday; the last of those trades was for 10,000 shares at 21 cents/share. This trade was part of a three-trade block of 40,500 shares, almost half the day's volume. The component trades all took place at the same time and all had Jennings as the buy-side financial instutution.

The top percentage gainer in yesterday's trading was, unsurprisingly, Maximum Ventures. MVI.H gained 120.6% on the day.

The top percentage decliner for yesterday was Exchequer Resource Corp [NEX: EXQ.H], which closed at 14 cents/share for a loss of 7 cents/share or 33.33%. There were only two trades in EXQ.H yesterday, one for an odd-lot size; it hadn't traded for almost a month previous to yesterday. Its close, however, did set a new 52-week low for the stock.

And finally, that 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] - 1.96% of total shares outstanding;
2. Alpha Group Industries Inc. [NEX: ALP.H] - 1.75% of TSO;
3. Magnate Ventures Inc. [NEX: MGV.H] - 1.04%;
4. MP Western Properties Inc. [NEX: MPW.H] - 0.877%;
5. Arcland Resources Inc. [NEX: ADR.H] - 0.857%;
6. Rocher Deboule Minerals Corp. [NEX: RD.H] - 0.640%;
7. Network Exploration Ltd. class 'A' [NEX: NET.H] - 0.602%;
8. Emergence Resort Canada Inc. [NEX: ERS.H] - 0.473%;
9. Avigo Resources Corp. [NEX: TMX.H] - 0.456%;
10. BHR Buffalo Head Resources Ltd. [NEX: BHR.H] - 0.445%.

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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