Gold weakened last week, as the Fed pledged to continue with its plans to taper monetary stimulus. After hitting a high of $1,270 per ounce ahead of Wednesday’s Fed statement, gold trended lower throughout the remainder of the week, and ended Friday’s session down by 2.3% on the week, at $1,244 per ounce.
Of course, the only practical way for most private investors to invest in gold is through exchange-traded funds. The largest gold ETF, the $32bn SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE: GLD.US), ended last week down by 1.3% at $120.09, while London-listed Gold Bullion Securities (LSE: GBS) ended the week down 1.9% at $119.43. Over the last twelve months, shareholders of Gold Bullion Securities have seen the value of their holdings fall by 29.2%, while the value of SPDR Gold Trust shares has fallen by 25.9%.
Gold mining equities remained fairly stable last week, despite the falling gold price. However, a number of firms underperformed the price of gold last week, after issuing updates that didn’t find favour with investors:
Centamin (LSE: CEY) dropped 4.8% to 44p last week, after it announced 2014 production guidance of 420,000 ounces, an 18% increase on the firm’s 2013 production. Centamin expects 2014 production to be at a cash operating cost of $700 per ounce, unchanged from 2013.
Highland Gold Mining (LSE: HGM) slipped 6.0% to 63p, despite the firm reporting record full-year production of 233,696 ounces in 2012, in line with its previous guidance. Highland Gold also issued 2014 production guidance of between 300,000 and 320,000 ounces of gold and gold equivalents.
Patagonia Gold (LSE: PGD) edged down 3.7% to 12p last week, after it told investors that it planned to expand planned production at its Lomada Mine from 21,000oz/annum to 33,000oz/annum, in order to reduce production costs. Patagonia also confirmed that it will proceed with plans for developing its Cap-Oeste project, based on the success of its Lomada heap leach mine, which reported trial production of 5,178oz in the final quarter of last year, at an attractive all-in cost of $865 per ounce.