It was extremely quiet, thin volumes. The markets were sufficiently thin that if you wanted to do anything of consequence, either buying or selling, you probably would have moved the market.

(The market is) very quiet, choppy, very, very volatile. There are a number of players that have already exited ahead of Christmas. In consequence, very little is going on so it doesn't take much to move the stock either way, up or down.

Overall, the trading is thin due to closure of the U.S. financial markets.

Well, I suppose that consequently makes you my favorite nightmare.

The combination of early closes, thin volumes and end-of-year book squaring are set to keep volatility high, but with gold set to close above $500/oz, the prospects of further gains in 2006 are looking very strong indeed.

We have observed totally unexpected and abnormal increases in trading volumes and it is extremely regrettable that we had to take such action.