Gold Mining Funds Gains Some Strength

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April was the worst month for the Gold Mining companies. However, May has ignited some hope and this week the things have turned out to be better, says a report from Brendan Conway of Barrons.

Gold Mining Funds Gains Some Strength

Gold Trading High

Gold is trading at a two week high on Thursday, and the price of Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSEARCA:GDX) has increased by more than 8 percent in the week, along with an increase of 4.4 percent on Thursday. SPDR Gold Trust (ETF) (NYSEARCA:GLD) increased 1.5 percent.

Possible Reasons

There are various reasons given for this development. One is that towards the end of the month, the short sellers have the best opportunity to take benefit of the current success. The other reason is the price of Gold surging to a certain level after a good report from the World Gold Council on Wednesday.

According to the Gold Council, the declining investment in gold ETF flows is being balanced by the increase in Asian markets that hold the view that gold is meant for the long term perspective.

Portfolio’s & Stocks that suffered most

The drop in gold prices over the past month weighed heavily on some of the popular portfolios.

In April, the portfolio of former Texas Congressmen Ron Paul was in the range $2.44 million and $5.46 million. The investment in gold was down 40.3 percent over the past six months. Paul has invested a staggering 64 percent of his total assets in the gold stocks. According to the calculations performed, the total loss faced by Paul in the last six months is between $624,640 and $1,397,760. The portfolio of Ron Paul mainly consisted of gold miners and juniors. Due to lack of diversification, Paul faced major loss in his net worth.

John Paulson and David Einhorn are the two fund managers who also lost money like Ron Paul. Both the fund managers suffered a total loss of $640 million based on their SEC filings. The loss incurred by Paulson from investing in gold miners totaled at $171 million. He also invested in 21.8 million shares of SPDR Gold Trust (ETF) (NYSEARCA: GLD). From this investment total loss incurred is $430 million.

Einhorn invested in company Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE:ABX) (TSE:ABX) and Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSEARCA:GDX). His hedge fund suffered a loss of around $9.7 million from Barrick Gold stake and around $31 million from Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF.

Some of the mining stocks that suffered the most due to the plunge in gold prices are Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE:ABX) (TSE:ABX), NewMont Mining Corp (NYSE:NME), Nyrstar NV (EBR:NYR), a Belgian metal producer and Petropavlovsk PLC (PINK:PPLKY) (LON:POG).

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