Gold, Silver Shares Drop, XAU Falls 1.2%

By Roger Baettig | January 07 2013 3:05 PM

Reuters

Unlike most other people, the Queen was allowed to touch and verify the gold.

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Shares of most gold and silver mining companies remained in negative territory Monday afternoon despite mixed action in precious metals and only a modest sell-off in the broader equity markets.

The Philadelphia Gold & Silver Index (XAU) traded down by 1.2% at 160.61 while the S&P 500 Index dipped 0.4% to 1,460.14.

As for the metals, COMEX gold futures settled with a loss of $2.60, or 0.2%, at $1,646.30 per ounce. In contrast to the yellow metal, COMEX silver futures advanced $0.14, or 0.5%, to $30.08 per ounce.

While news in the sector was rather light, one notable gold miner making headlines was Harmony Gold (HMY). The South African-based gold miner lowered its full-year production guidance to 1.2 million ounces from 1.3 due to the ongoing closure of its Kusasalethu mine due to labor unrest.

Shares of HMY tumbled 5.2% to $8.03, making it the largest decliner among gold and silver stocks in the XAU. Other XAU components in the red included Gold Fields (GFI) and Silver Standard Resources (SSRI) – which dropped by 1.4% to $12.04 and by 0.5% to $14.69 per share, respectively.