Confidentiality restricts brokers from disclosing client...

Confidentiality restricts brokers from disclosing client transactions.

If you have a look at the ASX gold producers at close today, all had a large number of shares traded in the closing auction. These companies are all constituents of the VanEck GDX Gold Index.

The index holds shares in gold companies in various stock exchanges around the world, provided those companies qualify on Market Cap and Liquidity criteria. Every 3 months the index re-balances based on the relative change in each company's market cap during the quarter. The index is large (+10Billion) so they require large holdings and rebalances can often involve big lines in stock, particularly when a company is first included in the index.

The reason that the share price doesn't necessarily move a great deal, despite a large buy or sell order, is that astute gold index watchers position themselves in the lead up to the auction date. This provides the requisite liquidity on the balance date.

In the next couple of days there will be a substantial shareholder notice confirming VanEck as the buyer.

For those interested, mark your calendar for the nearest Friday to 3 months from today when the next rebalance will occur, so mid December.