Stockpile: Markets recover some of Friday's losses on positive US jobs number

A higher than expected US jobs number on Friday helped markets recover some of the previous day's losses.

Approximately 117,000 jobs were added in July, compared with a forecast of 75,000 and the previous month's figure of just 46,000.

The Standard & Poor's index of 24 commodities jumped by 1% just after 1:30pm London time, erasing its earlier losses for the day.

Global stock markets are still fragile, however, as underlying stocks have shed billions off their market value over the past week. On Thursday, the Dow Jones Index suffered its sharpest one-day fall since October 2008.

Miners, even the gold ones, have not avoided the drop, with most of London's main board resource companies falling in the week.

The largest faller was Centamin Egypt plc, which fell nearly one-third over the week after informing the market that it would not meet its 2011 gold production guidance due to a reduction in blasting activities at its Sukari mine. The company now expects 200,000-210,000oz this year, from 250,000-290,000oz previously.

Analysts at Ambrian Capital plc pointed out that despite the production shortfall, the company still made an operating profit of US$48.2 million in the June quarter.

Two of the only gainers on the main board were Fresnillo plc (up almost 7%) and Randgold Resources Ltd (over 3%). Combined with increasing precious metals prices, the two companies produced some positive results reports in the week to see their share prices rise.

Fresnillo, the world's largest primary silver producer, said that a doubling of the silver price in the June half year, compared with a year ago, helped increase revenue by 75% to US$1.14 billion, leading to a more than doubling of attributable profit to US$422 million. Strong cash flows also lead to a more than doubling of the interim dividend to US$0.21/share.

African gold producer Randgold said gold production increased by a third quarter-on-quarter to the end of June. Cash operating costs reduced for the second quarter in a row, this time from US$677/oz to US$579/oz. Profits of US$128 million were nearly triple the figure reported for the three months to end-March.

The miners on AIM weren't spared from the carnage as a high number of companies lost significant value during the past week.

GCM Resources plc suffered the steepest fall, moving more than 40% lower despite not releasing an announcement.

Amur Minerals Corp, which is exploring and developing assets in east Russia, tumbled close to 30% despite also not making an announcement.

Solomon Gold plc had another poor week, with a drop of almost 26%. Two weeks ago the company was down 13% after it reported promising results from drilling at its Kauffmans-Homestead property in Queensland.

Baobab Resources plc was almost 26% lower after the diversified explorer provided an update on its activities at the Massamba Camp project. The company said it planned to release a resource estimate for its South Zone prospect later this month.

Afferro Mining plc lost 25% despite a Fairfax analysts saying that both of the company's iron-ore projects were progressing as planned. The company is developing the Nkout project in Cameroon and the Putu project in Liberia.

Other companies to make notables losses included Churchill Mining plc and Forte Energy NL, both falling about 24%.

Only two AIM-listed companies were in positive ground as the trading week drew to a close. Natasa Mining Ltd added close to 2% and Emerging Metals Ltd was 1% higher.