5 Top Weekly TSX Stocks: Excelsior Plugs in Gunnison

At the end of last week, Canada’s S&P/TSX Composite Index (INDEXTSI:OSPTX) was down by 8.29 points, or a miniscule 0.05 percent, to 16,485.94 on Friday (July 19).

General news from around the world was the typical mix of drama out of the UK and the US, while in the Middle East brinkmanship has become the name of the game, as the Royal Navy escorts UK-flagged ships through the Persian Gulf.

In commodities, gold is still up and silver wanted a chance to shine last week, while base metals were a mixed bag with zinc and nickel flat, while copper had a slight recovery.

Speaking of commodities, here are the top five gainers on the TSX last week in the basic materials and energy sectors.

• Northern Dynasty Minerals (TSX:NDM)
• Oryx Petroleum (TSX:OXC)
• Excelsior Mining (TSX:MIN)
• Valeura Energy (TSX:VLE)
• Treasury Metals (TSX:TML)

Read on to find out what’s been in the news for these companies.

Northern Dynasty

Northern Dynasty is always in the news one way or another, with its giant pebble copper-gold project in Alaska attracting attention from supporters and opponents for plenty of reasons.

While the company hasn’t said anything since its last bout of good news in late June when the US Environmental Protection Agency announced it is going to reconsider a 2014 decision that effectively killed the project, the company was up by 20 percent last week on the TSX, reaching C$0.78.

Oryx Petroleum

Oryx Petroleum is an international oil company established in 2010. It has a number of assets, projects and wells in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Senegal.

Like the above company, Oryx hasn’t released any news in July — its last news was the election of directors in June. However, the attention (and gains on the TSX) could be explained by oil being in the news thanks to the increase in military traffic in the Persian Gulf.

The company was up by 20 percent last week, reaching C$0.30 by Friday.

Excelsior Mining

Phoenix-based Excelsior Mining is focused on pushing its Gunnison copper project through to production, with the company announcing that it had all its ducks in a row in October last year thanks to a US$75 million financing deal.

Since then, the company has been keeping busy, and most recently announced in July 16 that it had completed power upgrades and connections to the site. This means that the entire project is now connected to the grid.

On the TSX, Excelsior was up by 15.38 percent to reach C$1.05 by last Friday.

Valeura Energy

Valeura Energy is focused on producing natural gas in the Thrace basin in European Turkey, where it has a number of land assets in a region prolific in natural gas production.

There was no major news from Valeura this week, but last week the company announced when it would be releasing its financial and operating results for Q2 2019: August 12.

In Toronto, Valeura was trading at C$2.40 by last Friday, up 15.38 percent over the previous week.

Treasury Metals

Gold explorer and developer Treasury Metals has a 100 percent interest in the Goliath gold project in Ontario, which the company says is set to become one of Canada’s next producing gold mines as it works through permitting.

The company hasn’t released any news in July, with the most recent news being the results of the annual general meeting.

Treasury was up by 13.79 percent on the TSX in Toronto by the end of last week, reaching C$0.33.

Data for 5 Top TSX Stocks articles is retrieved each Friday at 10:30 a.m. PST using TradingView’s stock screener. Only companies with a market capitalization greater than $50 million prior to the week’s gains are included. Companies within basic materials and energy sectors are considered.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Scott Tibballs, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.