5 Top TSX Stocks: Diamond Stocks See Big Gains

Last Friday, the S&P TSX Composite index (INDEXTSI:OSPTX) unofficially closed up 75.55 points, or 0.54 percent, at 13,953.66 points. According to Reuters, it saw a weekly gain of 1.4 percent. 
The top gainer in the resource space was Seabridge Gold (TSX:SEA,NYSE:SA), and it was followed by Shore Gold (TSX:SGF), Peregrine Diamonds (TSX:PGD), Eco Oro Minerals (TSX:EOM) and Niocorp Developments (TSX:NB). Here’s a look at what moved the share prices of those companies last week.

Seabridge Gold

As mentioned, Seabridge Gold was the top gainer on the TSX last week, rising 31.57 percent to end at $11.71. The company’s British Columbia-based KSM project is one of the largest undeveloped gold projects in the world, with proven and probable reserves of 38.2 million ounces of gold and 9.9 billion pounds of copper.
The company released no news last week that would explain its share price increase. Most recently, on October 8, it arranged a $14.6-million non-brokered private placement.

Shore Gold

While its name suggests that it’s focused on gold, Shore Gold is actually exploring for diamonds in Saskatchewan, and on October 21, released an updated valuation of diamond parcels from the Star-Orion South project.
According to George Read, senior vice president exploration and development, the prices “have increased substantially since the March 2008 prices.” Those prices were used in a mineral resource estimate, and an updated estimate is currently in the works.
Shore Gold’s share price rose 17.65 percent, to $0.20, on the back of the news.

Peregrine Diamonds

Peregrine Diamonds is also focused on diamonds, and its core project, Chidliak, is located 120 kilometers from the capital of Nunavut. Last week, however, Peregrine put out news about a different project. It said it had started mobilizing a rotary air-blast drill rig at its Botswana-based Moralane license, and planned to start drilling on October 23.
Drilling will initially take place at the first of four kimberlite targets; exploration of the other targets will follow. The company’s share price rose 17.14 percent to hit $0.21 on the news.

Eco Oro Minerals

Eco Oro Minerals’ share price rose 16.67 percent last week to reach $0.70; however, like Seabridge it released no news during the period that would explain its gain. The company has a portfolio of projects in Colombia, with its main one being the Angostura gold-silver project.

NioCorp Developments

Finally, NioCorp Developments saw its share price gain 13.33 percent last week to hit $0.68. The company is developing the Elk Creek niobium-scandium-titanium project in Nebraska, which it says is North America’s highest-grade niobium project and world’s largest prospective producer of scandium.
On October 16, the company amended its second preliminary economic assessment for Elk Creek following a review from the BC Securities Commission. Then, on October 22, it closed a non-brokered private placement of unsecured, convertible promissory notes for gross proceeds of US$800,000.
 
Data for TSX Top 5 articles is retrieved each Friday after market close. Only companies with a market capitalization greater than $50 million prior to the week’s gains are included. 
Securities Disclosure: I, Charlotte McLeod, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
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