Spot gold continued in positive territory which has had a flow on effect for some of the bigger players.
At the time of writing, the precious metal was selling for just under US$2,660 ($4,290) an ounce.
State Street Global Advisers, which manages nearly US$5 trillion worth of assets making it one of the world’s largest investors, sees the safe-haven metal potentially topping US$3,100 an ounce in 2025.
This is due to inflation concerns, rising government debt and worsening geopolitical tensions.
Chief gold strategist George Milling-Stanley told the Australian Financial Review that State Street expects this trend to continue.
“We don’t see this changing and expect the secular demand trends underpinning gold’s price and its status as a safe haven to continue enhancing gold’s appeal as a core portfolio asset, even if capital markets strike a risk-on tone in 2025,” he said.
Northern Star Resources (ASX:NST), Newmont (ASX:NEM), West African Resources (ASX:WAF) and De Grey Mining (ASX:DEG) all ended the session in the green.
Northern Star jumped 2.93% to $16.53, Newmont was up 2.57% to $62.72, West African advanced 2.26% to $1.59 and De Grey rose 2.14% to $1.91.
Prior to the Christmas break, Northern Star tabled a $5 billion all-scrip takeover offer for De Grey, a move that was well received by De Grey shareholders.
Arcadium Lithium (ASX:LTM) was the biggest winner of the day with a 7.92% rally to $9.13 after announcing it has received clearance from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US for the proposed takeover by Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO).
The S&P/ASX 200 closed down 19.9 points, or 0.24%, at 8,329.2 points on Thursday.
Over the past five days, the index has gained 1.56% and is currently 2.18% off its 52-week high.
Ten of the 11 sectors closed in the red, with industrials down 1.04%, energy sliding 0.68% and materials edging back marginally. Utilities was the outlier, gaining 0.16% but with little movement over the past five days.
The S&P/ASX200 is Australia’s leading share market index and contains the top 200 ASX-listed companies in terms of market capitalisation, and accounts for about 80% of the country’s equity market. The index is designed to measure the performance of the 200 largest index-eligible stocks listed on the ASX by float-adjusted market capitalisation.
It is recognised as the institutional investable benchmark in the country.
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: ASX & Unsplash
