Following in its more popular cousin’s footsteps, silver is making moves and with a weak AUD/USD exchange rate, has hit $50 an ounce.
The precious metal is currently fetching just under US$34 an ounce, which translates to just over $50 an ounce at a AUD/USD rate of $0.67. This follows gold recently notching a new Australian dollar record of over $4,000 an ounce.
Meanwhile, the S&P/ASX 200 has advanced 60 points, or 0.72%, to 8,343.20 points as at 10.31am AEDT.
Over the last five days, the index has gained 1.57% and is currently 0.49% off its 52-week high.
Global rate cuts and a resilient US economy continue to play into the positive momentum.
This also follows a strong performance by US markets on Friday, which countered concerns over China’s slowing economy.
Ten of the 11 sectors were higher on Monday (21 October) morning. Materials led the Australian bourse higher with a 0.75% tick up, followed by utilities which rose 0.28%.
Among the gainers were uranium explorer Deep Yellow (ASX:DYL), which climbed 4.38% to $1.55, and gold miners West African Resources (ASX:WAF) with a 4.08% jump to $1.66, Evolution Mining (ASX:EVN) with a 4.07% advance to $5.25 and Bellevue Gold (ASX:BGL), which rose 3.90% to $1.53.
Chris Ellison’s Mineral Resources (ASX:MIN) retreated 9.62% to $41.45 following negative media speculation over the Managing Director’s “alleged tax evasion scheme”.
The company released a statement over the weekend saying it has engaged external legal counsel to conduct an investigation into the matter and advise the board.
“Ellison has cooperated with the investigation and the investigation is well-advanced,” the company says.
“Since its IPO in 2006, payments made by MinRes to offshore entities connected with Mr Ellison related to pre-IPO sales contracts that were recognised as liabilities in the company’s financial statements at the time.
“As to his private tax matters, Mr Ellison self-reported to the Australian Taxation Office, repaid amounts owed and disclosed these matters to the board. While this does not diminish what happened, Mr Ellison profoundly regrets his errors of judgment.”
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: Stock & ASX
