CAPITAL MARKETS

Gold equities gain lustre

Gold equities were a bright spot on global markets at the mid-point of the December quarter.

Staff reporter
St Barbara was one of the Australian gold stocks posting gains

St Barbara was one of the Australian gold stocks posting gains

Gloomy data out of China this week and a weaker US dollar has helped boost precious metal stocks and bullion with the spot price back above US$1,280 an ounce today.

Base metal prices took a tumble on the London Metal Exchange yesterday with nickel the worst performer, dropping more than 5.7%.

In Australia, BHP (AU:BHP) fell more than 2% today and fellow diversified miner Independence Group (AU:IGO) lost 4.49%.

This was likely due to IGO's base metals exposure, as it reported "encouraging" mineralisation from early-stage exploration at its Lake Mackay gold and base metals joint venture in the Northern Territory.

However gold miners St Barbara (AU:SBM) and Northern Star Resources (AU:NST) both hit 52-week highs intraday, gaining 3.64% and 2.86% respectively.

The gains came as research by Argonaut Securities showed Australia's mid-tier gold producers were lower cost than their North American counterparts, as sister publication MiningNews.net reported.

The movements echoed a similar pattern in Toronto yesterday, with gold miner Barrick Gold (CN:ABX) rising slightly and diversified Teck Resources (CN:TECK.B) falling almost 3%.

In the US, the S&P500 closed lower yesterday as did Johannesburg's FTSE/JSE Africa All Share Index, despite a raft of economic deals announced earlier in the week designed to restore investor confidence in South Africa.

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