The American Stock Exchange has started publishing the Amex Gold Miners Index under the ticker symbol gdm.
The index is designed to be a barometer of gold and silver mining; it weighs the various market caps of publicly traded companies mostly involved in mining gold and silver.
The index includes common stocks of selected companies with market caps greater than US$100 million that have an average daily volume of at least 50,000 shares over the previous six months.
Amex says it could eventually list an exchange-traded fund based on the index.
Over the 5-year period ended Sept. 30, 2004, the Amex Gold Miners Index had a cumulative return of 92.99% and an annualized return of 14.04%.
The Amex Gold Miners Index fills a market void for a broad-based index of gold shares. As it stands, the index covers 36 companies, up to three times the number of companies as other indices of gold stocks and includes large-cap and small-cap companies, according to Joe Foster, portfolio manager of the Van Eck International Investors Gold Fund.
Says Foster: “The new Amex Gold Miners Index combines emerging producers with established miners to reflect a cross-section of the market. With this more comprehensive representation, the Amex Gold Miners Index may become the benchmark for the industry.”
Be the first to comment on "Amex launches gold index"