Stock markets south of the border moved sideways during the reporting period Dec. 13-19, despite generally positive economic news and a signal from the Federal Reserve Bank that it had finished with interest rate increases. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 10,836.53, up 68.76 points or 0.6% from the previous Monday.
The markets didn’t seem to be picking up on signals from the gold market, either. Bullion prices — perhaps frothy at the US$536 level at the beginning of the period — fell back sharply, with the London afternoon fix on Dec. 19 down to US$508.75 per oz. Yet the major gold equities weren’t badly hurt by the downturn in the price — Newmont Mining was down a quarter at US$50.15, AngloGold Ashanti gave back US31 to close at US$46.62, Gold Fields fell US8 to US$16.84, and Harmony Gold Mining dropped US28 to US$12.93.
There were two big casualties among the mid-tiers: Minas Buenaventura plunged US$3.87 to US$27.35 and Lihir Gold was off US$2.83 at US$30.64. Silver-sensitive Hecla Mining was down US22 at US$3.55, while Coeur d’Alene Mines slid US28 to US$3.92.
Amex-listed Apex Silver got the double whammy of a falling silver price and the victory of left-wing Evo Morales in the Bolivian presidential elections. Apex shares dipped US$1.04 to US$16.18.
Rio Tinto was the successful bidder in a government auction of the La Granja copper project in northern Peru, a project that both Cambior and BHP Billiton had taken swings at. La Granja, with a reported resource of 1.2 billion tonnes grading 0.65% copper, went for US$22 million down and a US$60-million work commitment, with Rio as the only bidder among six pre-qualified companies. Rio shares were up US45 at US$176.05.
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