As they often do, the golds came to the fore in an unpleasant U.S. equity market over the five trading days May 14-20. While the Standard & Poor’s 500 index was sliding 22.57 points to 919.73 and the Dow Jones industrial average was slumping 187.89 points to 8,491.36, the U.S.-listed golds were almost all on the rise.
AngloGold and Ashanti were the newsmakers, confirming they were in talks to merge Ashanti into the big South African mining house via a share trade of 0.26 AngloGold for one Ashanti. AngloGold was up US15 at US$30.67 while Ashanti, which had already risen US66 the week before on speculation about a takeover bid, rose another US92 to US$7.57. Gold Fields, which said it was not planning to bid for Ashanti, was up US$1.13 at US$11.70, and Newmont added US$1.21 to finish at US$29.22.
The mid-tier gold miners were also better, though the Africans got the best bounce, especially Durban Roodepoort Deeps, which jumped US57 to US$2.87. Harmony Gold was up US$1.32 at US$13.36, while Randgold Resources added US$1.60 to close at US$19.40.
Among the juniors, Apex Silver tacked on US75 to finish at US$15.10, though silver was the only precious metal to lose ground on the metal markets during the period. Commerce Group picked up US3 to close at US24, but MK Gold was down US2 at US48, and Clifton Mining was unchanged at US19.
The base metal producers were mostly weaker. Phelps Dodge was down US75 to US$33.54, while Rio Tinto was off US$1.52 at US$75.
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