MARQUEST MONTHLY PAY UPDATE – JULY 11, 2014

Liis Palmer, Cassels Investment Management Inc.

Last week the Marquest Monthly Pay Fund (A units) closed at $5.32, down from $5.37 the previous week. The TSX was down 0.6 percent in the same period. The news of Portugal’s Banco Espirito Santo’s financial struggles renewed concerns about systemic risks in the financial systems.

Leading contributors in the portfolio were Royal Bank (up 1.5 percent), TransCanada (up 3.5 percent), First Quantum Resources (up 4.8 percent), Canexus (up 2.8 percent) and Goldcorp (up 4.1 percent). First Quantum is a copper miner and its share price has been supported by an 8 percent rebound in copper prices since March, though the copper price was slightly down (to US$326.90/tonne) on the week. Better economic data out of copper’s biggest customer, China, and smelter bottlenecks which have limited supply of refined copper have reversed the surplus narrative from the beginning of the year. Goldcorp benefitted from the 1.4 percent increase in the gold price and was one of the top performing stocks globally last week.

Laggards in the portfolio were Vermillion Energy (down 5.3 percent), Bonavista Energy (down 5.9 percent), Arc Resources (down 5.0 percent) and Crescent Point Energy (down 4.5 percent). The price of WTI crude oil was down 3.1 percent on increasing supply and decreasing investor concerns that conflict in the Middle East would disrupt supply.