Regent Pacific Properties Inc V.RPP

Pulp and paper prices for 2001

[bcwestcoast]

Here's a article in today's www.globeandmail.com in the report on business section. Question: How much % sales does repap do a year in newsprint? and where can you get the current newsprint price and how much is it? Thanks! bcwestcoast POSTED AT 7:02 AM EDT Monday, August 28 WEEK AHEAD Resource shares seen boosting TSE Reuters News Agency Technology, banks and the recent surge in energy stocks have placed Toronto's equity index on top of the world but the miners and lumberjacks have yet to join the millennium celebrations. The recent consolidation in the mining sector, rising pulp and paper prices and further oil and gas gains are catalysts that analysts said could drive the Toronto Stock Exchange even higher. The TSE 300-share composite index rose another 1 per cent last week to end the week at 11,246.04, which is just below its record high. After years of underperformance, Canada leads the world's equity indexes in 2000 with a hefty 32-per-cent return. And while technology stocks led by Nortel Networks Corp. spearheaded the gains, a surge in banks and energy stocks is now being joined by the moribund mining sector. Miners, traditionally an important part of Canada's stock market, finally sprang to life this week after Noranda Inc. made a hostile bid for base metals miner Rio Algom Ltd. The bid was then trumped by Britain's' Billiton PLC and Noranda said it was mulling a counter offer. Industry consolidation, rather than underlying fundamentals, could light a fire under base metals miners, said Robert Spector, a senior economist and strategist at Merrill Lynch Canada. "A combination of sharply rising prices and sharply accelerating growth is what you need to get major outperformance in metals, and I don't think you are going to see that. What you will see to really get the sector moving is consolidation," Mr. Spector said. On the other side of the resource equation is Canada's energy stocks, which Merrill Lynch believes are about 20-per-cent cheaper than their global counterparts. Mr. Spector said higher oil prices are now seeping into expectations, with analysts raising earnings targets, supported by estimates of solid global growth. "Our oil and gas producers out west are cheap compared to their global counterparts. When you have a sector with fantastic fundamentals plus compelling valuations that's a sector where you want to be overweight," added Spector. Patricia Mohr, economist at ScotiaMcleod, said low crude oil and heating oil inventories should keep oil prices in the high $20 (U.S.) a barrel range, and also boost natural gas prices. "Generally, it does bode well for oil and gas equities. There has been some increase in the TSE oil and gas index and I estimate that will move higher," Ms. Mohr said. Ms. Mohr is also bullish on newsprint and pulp producers that are poised to benefit from a price increase that should take effect in the first quarter of 2001. Newsprint prices should rise 10 per cent to $610 a tonne, which Ms. Mohr calls a "reasonably lucrative level for newsprint," and something that is feeding into an early fall rally for the sector in Toronto. Base metals prices on the other hand have been stagnant because of the summer holiday lull in Europe and a slowdown in the U.S. economy. Demand is however expected to pick up in Asia and Europe in the coming months.

[padraig7]

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