Look where the money's going now - world's top 100 mining stocks

Some froth, but led by silver and copper stocks, investors are chasing quality names.

JOHANNESBURG - 

With the odd exceptions here (Japan, Korea) and there (Turkey, Ireland), most country stock markets are trading at or close to 12-month highs, as reflected in the buoyant levels of leading indices such as the MSCI world equities USD index, the Dow Jones Industrial, DJ Stoxx 600, and even China's CSI 300, which experienced a sharp series of corrections just months ago.

The world's 100 biggest mining stocks, measured by value, are pretty much running apace with the broader story on general optimism that stability has largely returned to markets, and that profits and cash flows are returning to mean reversion, after the severe corrections in most commodity prices that set in around mid-2007. Commodity prices continue to recover, not least as seen in current dollar gold bullion.

A series of discernible trends are apparent from the pricing of mining equities subsectors, where, over the past 12-months, top returns have been delivered by specialist silver, and also copper, miners. In the broader resources sector, the weakest stock price returns have been delivered, somewhat painfully, by oil producers, and miners (as opposed to explorers and developers) of both platinum and uranium. Potash, coal and molybdenum specialists have also tended to lag.

Stock price returns for listed miners shows a broad correlation with the underlying behaviour of dollar commodity prices. Measured from the bottom, generally during and around December 2008, dollar commodity prices have bounced by as much as 180% (for lead), and 54% (for tin, a minor base metal). Gold bullion, which retraced the least in price during the panic sell off in markets following the bankruptcy of Wall Street investment bank Lehman Bros. in mid-September 2007, has bounced by 57% from its lows. 

Silver bullion has seen its dollar price increase by 112% from the bottom. The global aggregate market capitalisation of primary silver producers is relatively modest, at USD 30bn, but the sector clearly owns a devoted following that has put a number of stocks at the front end of broad mining equities' stock price returns. Once again, London-listed Mexican miner Fresnillo ranks as the belle of the ball for the world's 100 biggest mining companies.

In its 2008 annual report, Fresnillo reported that silver bullion averaged USD 14.99 an ounce for the year, compared to USD 13.41 for the year before. In its 2009 interim report, Fresnillo reported that its realised silver price was USD 13.92 an ounce for the first six months of 2009, down 21.9% on the year-ago period. Spot prices are currently at USD 18.73 an ounce, suggesting, based on Fresnillo's earnings and cash flows for previously reported periods, that investors are betting that silver bullion still has some way to go in dollar terms.

But if Fresnillo is leading the pack, there are lots of other contenders very close to the throne, which can change by the minute, in the nature of volatility of tradeable securities. Contenders include a goodly mixture of stocks with metal and mineral specialist pedigrees, with a solid representation from gold diggers in the form of Barrick, Polyus, Newmont, Yamana, and Iamgold.

Beyond silver and gold in precious metals, stocks in very strong demand include Russia's  Magnitogorsk (steel and iron ore), ICL and Silvinit (potash), Freeport-McMoRan (copper/gold/molybdenum), and a substantial showing from diversifieds, with top choices manifest in Teck, BHP Billiton, Vale, Vedanta, Rio Tinto, Buenaventura, and Xstrata.

Further top showings from specialist copper names include Southern Copper, KGHM Polska Miedź, Kazakhmys, Antofagasta, and Sterlite. There are also increasing portfolio flows into coal miners, as seen in the highly encouraging price developments for Peabody Energy. 

Way at the other end of the performance scale are found a fairly noticeable list of relatively depressed Chinese mining stocks, such as Chalco, Qinghai, Western Mining, Yunnan Aluminium, and even Zijin, a global Tier I gold miner. Further on the relatively depressed side of stock price performance among the world's biggest miners can be found the likes of South Africa's Impala, Australia's Coal & Allied, Indonesia's Bumi Resources, gold stocks Harmony, Kinross, and Agnico-Eagle, France's Eramet, and Canada's PotashCorp.

SUBSCRIBE to Mineweb.com's free daily newsletter now.

Disclaimer

MINEWEB is an interactive publication, with rolling deadlines through each day, commencing in the Sydney morning,  and concluding, 24 hours later,  in the Vancouver evening.  If you believe your side of an issue deserves inclusion, but has failed to meet one of our deadlines, you are invited to notify the Editor in Chief in Johannesburg, and we will include you in our editing and expanding on our stories. Email him at alechogg@gmail.com

Print story      Email story      Subscribe to free newsletter

Back

 

responses to this article

Stock market symbols Sir, your comments and especially your lists of companies are very helpful for finding investment opportunities. But could you please add the stock market symbols? It would be a great help for finding the charts of a company. Thank you . .more very much, M. Ott . .less by Ott on November 20 2009, 16:53 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

MBT It's great to see an article like this. www.mbtselling.com www.jerseystown.com www.dunkjordan.com by MBT Chapa on May 07 2010, 21:48 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

jordan With the series knotted at two, [url=http://www.dunkjordan.com/lebron-james-shoes-c-39.html]lebron james shoes[/url]the Bruins needed to hold serve against the [url=http://www.dunkjordan.com/kobe-bryant-shoes-c-37.html]kobe bryant shoes[/url] . .more Blackhawks at home before heading out to Chicago for Game 6. On [url=http://www.dunkjordan.com/]cheap jordan shoes[/url]a team with both Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito at their peak, [url=http://www.dunkjordan.com/]air jordan shoes[/url]it was a man about to turn 39 who stole the show. Johnny Bucyk put home a pair of goals,[url=http://www.dunkjordan.com/]air jordan[/url] including a breakaway on which he seemingly found the fountain of youth. "I almost had a heart attack, but I don't think about my age," Bucyk said of his second-period goal that opened the floodgates. Esposito deposited a pair of goals against younger[url=http://www.dunkjordan.com/]michael jordan shoes[/url] brother Tony, who was pulled during the second intermission after allowing six goals. [url=http://www.dunkjordan.com/]jordan shoes[/url]The elder Esposito became just the 11th player with 100 career playoff points. The Bruins took a 3-2 lead in the series, ultimately advancing to the Stanley Cup finals, where they lost to the Flyers. . .less by MBT on May 07 2010, 21:48 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

NFL PRO bowl jerseys If you think the 2010 Red Sox are off to a slow start, [url=http://www.mbtselling.com/mbt-chapa-womens-shoes-c-52.html]MBT Chapa[/url]perhaps 1977 offers some optimism. Boston ultimately won 97 games that season, but was just 4-7 entering this . .more day. [url=http://www.mbtselling.com/mbt-changa-shoes-c-43.html]MBT Changa[/url]The win began a stretch of 14 wins in 19 games. Future Hall of Famer Fergie Jenkins, in his second season in Boston, tossed a three-hit shutout.[url=http://www.mbtselling.com/mbt-tataga-shoes-c-45.html]MBT Tataga[/url] Dwight Evans and George Scott both went deep.[url=http://www.mbtselling.com/]mbt shoes best prices[/url] For Scott, it was his first home run with Boston since returning from five seasons in Milwaukee.[url=http://www.mbtselling.com/]mbt shoes cheap[/url] The game is also the source of a fun piece of Red Sox trivia. In the ninth inning,[url=http://www.mbtselling.com/]discount mbt shoes[/url] Dave Coleman entered the game as a pinch-runner for Carl Yastrzemski and scored. Coleman never got a hit in 12 major league at-bats,[url=http://www.mbtselling.com/]mbt shoes[/url] but he did cross the plate this once . .less by NCAA Football on May 08 2010, 01:18 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

NFL PRO bowl jerseys If you think the 2010 Red Sox are off to a slow start, [url=http://www.mbtselling.com/mbt-chapa-womens-shoes-c-52.html]MBT Chapa[/url]perhaps 1977 offers some optimism. Boston ultimately won 97 games that season, but was just 4-7 entering this . .more day. [url=http://www.mbtselling.com/mbt-changa-shoes-c-43.html]MBT Changa[/url]The win began a stretch of 14 wins in 19 games. Future Hall of Famer Fergie Jenkins, in his second season in Boston, tossed a three-hit shutout.[url=http://www.mbtselling.com/mbt-tataga-shoes-c-45.html]MBT Tataga[/url] Dwight Evans and George Scott both went deep.[url=http://www.mbtselling.com/]mbt shoes best prices[/url] For Scott, it was his first home run with Boston since returning from five seasons in Milwaukee.[url=http://www.mbtselling.com/]mbt shoes cheap[/url] The game is also the source of a fun piece of Red Sox trivia. In the ninth inning,[url=http://www.mbtselling.com/]discount mbt shoes[/url] Dave Coleman entered the game as a pinch-runner for Carl Yastrzemski and scored. Coleman never got a hit in 12 major league at-bats,[url=http://www.mbtselling.com/]mbt shoes[/url] but he did cross the plate this once . .less by NCAA Football on May 08 2010, 02:12 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

NFL PRO bowl jerseys If you think the 2010 Red Sox are off to a slow start, [url=http://www.mbtselling.com/mbt-chapa-womens-shoes-c-52.html]MBT Chapa[/url]perhaps 1977 offers some optimism. Boston ultimately won 97 games that season, but was just 4-7 entering this . .more day. [url=http://www.mbtselling.com/mbt-changa-shoes-c-43.html]MBT Changa[/url]The win began a stretch of 14 wins in 19 games. Future Hall of Famer Fergie Jenkins, in his second season in Boston, tossed a three-hit shutout.[url=http://www.mbtselling.com/mbt-tataga-shoes-c-45.html]MBT Tataga[/url] Dwight Evans and George Scott both went deep.[url=http://www.mbtselling.com/]mbt shoes best prices[/url] For Scott, it was his first home run with Boston since returning from five seasons in Milwaukee.[url=http://www.mbtselling.com/]mbt shoes cheap[/url] The game is also the source of a fun piece of Red Sox trivia. In the ninth inning,[url=http://www.mbtselling.com/]discount mbt shoes[/url] Dave Coleman entered the game as a pinch-runner for Carl Yastrzemski and scored. Coleman never got a hit in 12 major league at-bats,[url=http://www.mbtselling.com/]mbt shoes[/url] but he did cross the plate this once . .less by NCAA Football on May 08 2010, 02:36 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Name
Subject
Comment