Canadian Venture Exchange -
Post/Reuters say CDNX may be haunted by scandals
Canadian Venture Exchange
CDNX
Shares issued 0
1899-12-30 close $0
Monday Dec 6 1999
The Financial Post reports in a Reuters dispatch in its Monday edition that the
official start of trading on the Canadian Venture Exchange, or CDNX, in
Vancouver this past week heralds an attempt by regulators to put a reputation for
Wild West-style investing out to pasture. Reporter Dann Rogers says that in its
first week of trading the exchange, touted as the new place for Canada's 2,400
mostly unproven but potential-laden new companies to raise money, rose 2.2 per
cent to 2043.41. There are skeptics, however. The CDNX combines the Alberta
Stock Exchange, which gave birth to Bre-X Minerals, the biggest stock market
hustle of all time, with the Vancouver Stock Exchange, branded by media critics
as "the scam capital of the world." Western Canada's mining industry is on life
support and the credibility of reserve estimates that crippled it is infecting small oil
and gas companies, but CDNX is leveraging itself into the fields of
telecommunications, technology and biotechnology. Stan Bell, founder of
Canada's Small Investors Protection Association, says you cannot rid the new
exchange of its old spots. He says he does not think this new amalgamation will
have much impact on the investor. "The frauds are going to continue. A lot of
people are still going to lose a lot of money," says Mr. Bell. |
