By Virginia Harrison, MarketWatch SYDNEY (MarketWatch) While gold prices have been on a record-breaking run, the performance of gold stocks in Australia has failed to dazzle, but some analysts are bullish on the outlook for the sector and point to a string of companies to watch. Gold prices GC1Z +0.75% have surged nearly 30% this year. At the same time Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gold index has lost nearly 4%, while the broader benchmark S&P/ASX 200 AU:XJO -0.18% is trading down around 14%, according to data from Factset. "We've seen the gold price rally significantly and we haven't seen gold stocks perform nearly as well," said Andrew McLeod, research analyst with Limestreet Capital, an Australian resources fund that excludes index heavyweights BHP Billiton Ltd. AU:BHP +0.11% BHP +1.20% and Rio Tinto Ltd. AU:RIO +0.65% RIO +2.22% . "We have a solid weighting to the gold sector. If we were to hold cash, or gold, we'd favor gold at the moment. Because of the disconnect between gold commodities and equities right now, we think there's a massive opportunity within that sector," McLeod said. More. Click on- http://www.marketwatch.com/story/australian-gold-stocks-poised-to-shine-2011-09-13
Interesting. Trolling through the announcements today, SBM had a substantial holder for GDXJ, the US junior gold index. Haven't noticed any others yet.
