Sector Overview
Base metals are firmer for choice, with help from another rally in China this morning. The copper price is unchanged at US$2.895 per pound ($/lb.); nickel lost five cents/lb. to around $4.75/lb.; aluminium is a tad better at just above 92 cents/lb.; lead has gained one cent/lb. to $1.065/lb. and zinc is up one and a half cents/lb. at $1.33/lb.Precious metals prices were led downwards by platinum which plunged US$20 per ounce ($/oz) to $960/oz. It’s not clear the reason for this, but there were a number of UK press articles over the weekend concerning the death of diesel vehicles and these may have had an impact, particularly as the palladium price was a little firmer at just above $885/oz.
A relatively quiet North Korea and a slightly stronger dollar didn’t help gold and silver and the price of the former has fallen just over $10/oz to $1,275/oz, while the latter lost twenty five cents/oz to just below $16.90/oz.
The local gold price slipped from just above £985/oz to just below, as sterling weakened below $1.30. Talk of sterling dollar parity offers good upside to sterling gold prices and developers of domestic gold projects such as Galantas Gold* (GAL/GAL-TSX-V) – Reiterated BUY.
In contrast to base metals, iron ore and the usual suspects remain subdued with shares in Fortescue Metals (FMG-ASX) off another 1.7%. The share price falls for both BHP Billiton (BLT) and Rio Tinto (RIO) were more modest than those seen in London earlier. Rio’s is off 0.9%, with BHP barely changed.
*Whitman Howard is Broker (AIM) and Financial Adviser to Galantas Gold
BHP Billiton is a resources company. Co. extracts and processes minerals, oil and gas, primarily in Australia and the Americas. Co. operates four reportable segments: Petroleum, which is engaged in the exploration, development and production of oil and gas; Copper, which is engaged in the mining of copper, silver, lead, zinc, molybdenum, uranium and gold; Iron Ore, which is engaged in the mining of iron ore; and Coal, which is engaged in the mining of metallurgical coal and energy coal. Co.'s Petroleum unit comprises conventional and unconventional oil and gas assets, and includes exploration, development and production activities.
Whitman Howard is an independent institutional stockbroking and investment banking business focused on servicing the needs of our corporate clients and institutional investor base.
The company began trading in 2011 with a team of highly experienced market professionals and the goal of building a leading capital markets business in an entrepreneurial environment.
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