SETI antennas listening for alien broadcasts: Astronomers at institute have been forced to shutter its program that scanned the skies for signs of extraterrestrial life, saying they?re out of funds.Getty Images/iStockphoto/Getty Images/iStockphoto
It's only one month, but there is a hint that the the doldrums for junior stock trading are coming to an end.
Trading in August on the junior resource stock-dominated TSX Venture Exchange jumped 23 per cent in August from July. That's the first month over month increase since February.
Throw in gold prices that are starting out September by cracking $1,700, and oil prices that are proving resilient, and there's some hope that the vicious bear market that saw investors walk away from Canadian junior resource stocks en masse is drawing to a close. The main index tracking Venture stocks is up about 8 per cent since hitting a three-year low in late June.
That's the good news. The bad news is the Venture index is still about half what it was in early 2011. Volume is down 19 per cent from August 2011.
But given what has been endured by junior investors -- and the bankers and traders who serve them -- any signs of life are very welcome.
Meanwhile, over at the senior Toronto Stock Exchange, you can still hear the crickets chirping. Volume declined 7 per cent from July and 42 per cent from August 2011. The numbers were about the same for Alpha, the rival market that TMX Group just bought.