***** gold in sight *****, page-2

precious metal powered by fund buying ***** http://www.miningnews.net/storyview.asp?storyid=51859§ionsource=s0

Precious metal powered by fund buying

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

GOLD rallied higher overnight powered by investment fund buying on expectations the precious metal has more room to rise, with shares in Newcrest Mining hitting a 52-week high and cracking the $A26 mark.



Gold futures for February delivery rose $US13.60 to $US532.50 per ounce on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, the biggest daily percentage gain since February 2002.

"It's mostly fund business. European and US funds seemed to have put a rally into play," a broker told Reuters. "The precious metals have attracted a lot of attention."

"The emergence of fund/investor buying rather than the long liquidation that was seen 12 months ago, is positive for gold's short-term and longer-term outlook," said James Moore at TheBullionDesk.com.

Gold hit a 24-year high of $US544.50 during mid-December.

Leading the Australian 'golds' this morning was Newcrest Mining which hit an intra-day high, along with a 52-week high of $26.19, with the stock up $1.39 to $26.07 in morning trade.

Lihir Gold was up 10c (4.5%) to $2.34, Kingsgate Consolidated was up 14c (2.9%) to $5.01, Dominion was up 2.5c (2.3%) to $1.13, Equigold was up 3c (2.2%) to $1.40, and Ballarat Goldfields was up 2.5c (6.5%) to 40.5c.

Croesus Mining was up 2.9%, BMA Gold was up 1.4%, Oxiana was up 0.9%, Perseverance was up 1.6%, Pan Australian Resources was up 2.4%, and Resolute Mining was up 1.3%.

Amongst the explorers and would-be miners, Gleneagle Gold was up 5.3% to 30c, Bendigo Mining was up 1.9% to $1.62, and Avoca was up 3.5% to 59c.