News

November 22, 2008

That Was The Week That Was … In Australia

By Our Man in Oz

Minews. Good morning Australia. Was that the bottom on Friday?

Oz. Perhaps... The big bounce in the gold price, as we were closing for the week, was a very positive sign, as was the continued recovery in the price of uranium. Having said that, we are so far down the hole that the slightest glimmer of light is as welcome as the first beer is after a day in the scrub country east of Kalgoorlie. In truth, the first four-and-a-half days of this week just gone were bloody awful, and Friday’s late recovery made little overall difference, even if it did claw back a few lost cents. Overall, the metals and mining index fell 15.7 per cent last week, easily outstripping the all ordinaries which was “only” down 9.1 per cent. Those latest falls take the decline over the past 12 months to 54 per cent for metals, and 47 per cent for the all ordinaries - a difference which highlights how hard hit the metals sector has been since the bear market started.

Minews. Grim stuff indeed. Was there any good news?

Oz. A couple of the gold stocks caught the first whiff of the higher gold price, and there was a bit of action among some of the uranium stocks, especially after BHP Billiton said it was re-starting work on its long-mothballed Yeelirrie project now that the government of Western Australia has formally lifted a ban on uranium mining in that state. Among the iron ore stocks, which have been hit very hard by China’s demands for production cuts,...