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January 30, 2010
That Was The Week That Was ... In Australia
By Our Man in Oz
www.minesite.com/aus.html
Minews. Good morning Australia. The correction continued last week?
Oz. It certainly did. Finding a winner in last week’s sea of red ink was a major challenge. All sectors were down, even gold, which was a bit odd because the price of the metal actually rose about A$10 an ounce, thanks to a combination of a slightly stronger U.S. dollar gold price and a fall in the Australian dollar exchange rate. As it turned out Australian gold stocks lost quite a bit of ground taking the gold index on the ASX as a guide. This dropped by 6.7 per cent. However, it is worth noting that most of that big drop in the index was caused by weakness in the top two goldminers, Lihir (LGL) and Newcrest (NCM). Lihir plunged by A29 cents to A$2.77, as speculation continued over the sudden departure of its chief executive two weeks ago. Newcrest lost A$1.78, as it tumbled to A$31.53. Elsewhere among the gold stocks the damage was not quite as bad.