It was a generally good trading period in the U.S. equity markets, with the major indices up modestly but the mining stocks generally strong. The Dow Jones Industrial Average picked up 90.52 points to close Nov. 4 at 9,838.83 and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index climbed 6.46 points to 1,053.25 in the same period.
At the same time, the resource stocks posted some significant gains. The big base metal miners were all up strongly, with Phelps Dodge jumping US$8.21 to US$64.10, Rio Tinto up US$3.38 to US$100.27, Anglo American rising US$1.51 to US$21.36, and BHP Billiton tacking on US19 to finish at US$16.48. Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold rose US$3.49 to US$41.05, a new high, and Southern Peru Copper was US$5.95 better at US$32.45.
The base metal producers were helped by rosy economic news, including a report of annualized 7.2% growth in the U.S. gross domestic product figure. Curiously, that didn’t harm the golds, which were also up.
Newmont Mining rose US56 to US$43.31 and Minas Buenaventura added US$1.01 to close at US$46.55. Buena announced its American Depository Receipts would be split 2-for-1, bringing the receipts to par with Buenaventura’s common shares quoted in Lima.
AngloGold picked up US30 to close at US$39.55, while Ashanti Goldfields, up US4 at US$11.12, announced that the Ghanaian government was backing AngloGold’s bid to buy Ashanti at 0.29 AngloGold shares for each Ashanti share. Randgold Resources, rebuffed by Ashanti despite having a pricier offer, was off US18 at US$22.47.
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