5 Top Weekly TSX Stocks: SolGold Boosted by Calmer Ecuador

Canada’s S&P/TSX Composite Index (INDEXTSI:OSPTX) ended last Friday (October 18) down by 21.16 points for the day, closing at 16,405.14.

In the news, Canada’s all wrapped up in election season as voters are finally in the home stretch, with the election to take place on Monday (October 21). Click here for the Investing News Network’s analysis on how the main parties are approaching resources.

In commodities, on Friday base metals were somewhat all over the place: copper was flat, zinc was slightly up, nickel and iron were down and lead was up.

Moving on to companies in the sector, here are the top five gainers on the TSX from last week:

• SolGold (TSX:SOLG)
• Sierra Metals (TSX:SMT)
• Amerigo Resources (TSX:ARG)
• Trilogy Metals (TSX:TMQ)
• First Quantum Minerals (TSX:FM)

Read on to find out more about what each company has been reporting on lately.

SolGold

Australia-based, Toronto-listed company SolGold has its primary assets in Ecuador, where it’s developing the Cascabel copper-gold project.

Ecuador has spent lots of time in the news over the last few weeks, with riots in the streets in response to government austerity action making companies operating there nervous. 

While SolGold reported that none of its activities have been affected, it announced the cessation of protests on its website hours after the news broke last week. Its share price was up by more than 28 percent at the end of the week at C$0.385.

Sierra Metals

Diversified mid-tier company Sierra Metals has three producing mines in two countries: Bolivar and Cusi in Mexico and Yauricocha in Peru. Its mines primarily produce copper, silver and zinc.

Last Tuesday (October 15), the company reported its Q3 production results, with silver production at 1 million ounces, copper at 11.1 million pounds, zinc at 22.5 million pounds, lead at 10.5 million pounds and gold at 3,490 ounces. Every commodity’s production levels saw increases year-on-year.

For its release, the company saw a 25.17 percent increase in its share price on the TSX, with Sierra trading at C$1.84 by last Friday.

Amerigo Resources

A base metals-focused company, Amerigo Resources has its sights set on copper, with a 100 percent interest in the MVC project, where it processes tailings from Codelco’s El Teniente copper mine in Chile.

Amerigo is another company with fresh Q3 results to wave about: the company reported that its MVC project produced 19.1 million pounds of copper in Q3.

Amerigo was trading at C$0.76 last Friday, up 23.77 percent on the previous five days trading.

Trilogy Metals

Trilogy Metals is focused on advancing exploration at the Upper Kobuk mineral projects’ high-grade copper-zinc-lead-gold-silver-cobalt properties in Northwest Alaska.

Like the two previous entries on this list, Trilogy reported its Q3 results recently, with the company highlighting a strong working capital position, progress on environmental matters, geotechnical drilling and additional exploration.

Trilogy’s share price was at C$2.37 last Friday — an increase of 17.33 percent for the trading period.

First Quantum Minerals

First Quantum Minerals is a copper producer perhaps best known for its freshly minted Cobre Panama copper project in the Central American country that gives the project its name. The company also has interests in Zambia.

Last Thursday (October 17), the company acknowledged a recent purchase of its shares by Chinese company Pangaea Investment Management, which is associated with Jiangxi Copper (OTC Pink:JIAXF,HKEX:0358). According to First Quantum, Jiangxi Copper is a substantial non-controlling shareholder and lender to Pangaea. Pangaea now owns around 10.8 percent of First Quantum’s shares.

By the end of the week, First Quantum was trading at C$11.13 — up by 15.46 percent over the period.

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 C$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.