Shares of Ashanti Gold Corp. (CVE:AGZ) last traded at 0.045, representing a move of -10%, or -0.005 per share, on volume of 56,000 shares. After opening the trading day at 0.045, shares of Ashanti Gold Corp. traded in a close range. Ashanti Gold Corp. currently has a total float of 73.84 million shares and on average sees 110,607 shares exchange hands each day. The stock now has a 52-week low of 0.04 and high of 0.245.

Canada: S&P/TSX Index

The S&P/TSX Composite Index is the headline index of equities listed on Canada’s Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX).Its components are market capitalization-weighted and together the constituents of the index account for 70% of TSX market capitalization.
The S&P/TSX Composite replaced the TSE 300 Index.

Inclusion in the index

The S&P/TSX Composite has eligibility criteria that among others require that a candidate stock for inclusion in the index must be listed on the TSX and the company behind the stock must be incorporated under Canadian laws.

Being a market capitalization weighted index, components of S&P/TSX Composite must weigh at least 0.05% of the index. Additionally, index candidate must have traded at a minimum average price of C$1 over in the last three months and maintained a price of at least C$1 in the last three trading days of the month immediately before the index is rebalanced. Still on market capitalization, the index is also float adjusted, whereby restricted stocks, such as those held by company insiders and stock that don’t trade frequently such as those held by the government and venture capitalists are excluded.

Liquidity of a stock is another important consideration for inclusion in The S&P/TSX Composite. Though measure is taken so that no single stock dominates the movement of the index, a security must be liquid enough in terms of volume traded and dollar value. As such, the number of transactions in a security must be at least 0.025% of all the sum of trading volume of eligible securities. Ashanti Gold Corp. has relatively good liquidity.

The S&P/TSX Composite is the primary gauge of the performance of Canadian stocks, especially given its massive coverage of the country’s equity market. Besides being a benchmark, the S&P/TSX Composite is also an investible index.

The index has about 250 components representing a variety of sectors. Of the index’ sectors, Financials is the largest, accounting for 36% of the index. The second-largest sector in the index is Energy, representing 20% of the index. Canada has a booming energy sector backed by oil drilling, which explains the large position of Energy in S&P/TSX Composite. Ashanti Gold Corp. is a stock traded on the Canadian exchange.

Besides Financials and Energy, Materials, Industrials and Consumer Discretionary make the top 5 sectors in the index.
The S&P/TSX Composite is regularly rebalanced to remove constituents that fall short of eligibility requirement and replace them with newly eligible ones.

Index performance

S&P/TSX Index hit its lowest level on record of 217.50 points in February 1950. But the index reached an all-time high of 15657.63 points in September 2014, backed by soaring gold and crude oil prices. Excitement in the Canadian energy and commodities sectors also provided a boost to the Financials sector, thus lifting the index to the record high.

After a lull, investors are jostling for Canadian stocks again amid hopes of a bright future for commodities where prices will continue to strengthen after a long period of soft prices. The move by OPEC members to cap oil output to stabilize oil prices is also boosting investor appetite in Canadian stocks. The stability of the Canadian economy and the strong corporate governance standards are other reasons Canadian stock market is heating up with an influx of domestic and foreign retail investors. Professional analysts might be interested how this will affect Ashanti Gold Corp..

Ashanti Gold Corp. engages in the exploration and development of gold and other mineral properties. The company has market cap of $3.32 million. The firm holds an option to earn a 67.5% net interest in the Anumso project, which includes a 29.63 square kilometer mining lease; and 100% interest in the Ashanti Belt project consisting of 3 licenses covering a total area of approximately 68 square kilometers located in Ashanti Belt in Ghana. It currently has negative earnings. It also has an option to earn a 65% interest in the Kossanto East project covering an area of 66.41 square kilometers in western Mali.