DJ Fall In StreetTRACKS' Stock Encouraged Gold Slide - Trade
12/08/2004
Dow Jones News Services
(Copyright © 2004 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
LONDON (Dow Jones)--The 3.5% fall in the price of spot gold Wednesday may have been encouraged by the sale of 15% of the gold held by the StreetTRACKS exchange-traded fund, or ETF, analysts in London said.
The total net asset value of gold in the trust stood at 88.02 metric tons Wednesday against 103.56 tons Tuesday.
Gold fell to $436.90 a troy ounce at the London fix Wednesday afternoon against $451.80/oz Tuesday afternoon.
While most participants agree the market was primed for a slide - in light of an overbought technical picture and a bounce for the dollar - they also believe the fall in tonnage in the StreetTRACKS trust was responsible for some of the selling.
The fall in the StreetTRACKS tonnage highlights the expectation by holders of the shares that the share price and price of gold is set to fall, said an analyst.
"It hasn't helped sentiment," said Kamal Naqvi, precious metals analyst at Barclays Capital.
StreetTRACK gold shares were launched Nov. 18 on the New York Stock Exchange to track the price of gold. Each share represents one-tenth an ounce of gold.
In the first week of trade to Nov. 26 the trust built up a total net asset value of just over 100 tons, but since then this remained virtually unchanged until the decline Tuesday.
Over the same period the share price for the fund has also remained steady, closing Tuesday at $45.11 compared with the close on the first day of trade at $44.38. At 1626 GMT Wednesday the shares were trading at $43.62.
"Gold was primed for a correction but it seems to me an interesting correlation that the StreetTRACKS tonnage fell at the same time," said Philip Klapwijk, managing director of GFMS Ltd.
The StreetTRACKS Web site says the tonnage in the trust for Wednesday will be updated between 1615 and 1630 EST.
-By David Elliott; Dow Jones Newswires; (4420) 7842 9411; david.elliott@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
12-08-04 1239ET
