Positive news about Sutton. Major Gold Fund Ivasco Rates Sutton next to Barrick and Newmont...
09/05 Gold Funds: 'In Midst Of Exploration Boom, Manager Says'
Invesco's Leonard looks for those small- and mid-cap companies that have exploratory efforts throughout the world. "Most people don't realize it, but we're going through one of the biggest exploration booms in this century," Leonard says. "Many third-world countries
have changed from dictatorships and are more democratic and are more open to exploration."
Sutton Resources Ltd. (STIZF) - a Canadian company searching East Africa - is on Leonard's pick list next to Barrick and Newmont. He also likes Gitennes Exploration Inc. (GIT), which has operations in Peru. The Invesco fund is down 31.12% year to date, but produced a 0.26% gain in August. Whether the August turnaround can continue depends on gold prices, says John Madden, senior portfolio manager of Keystone Precious Metals Holdings Fund, which posted a 1.82% gain in August. And on that front there's more discouraging news: Reports from Russia say the government there sold 31 metric tons of its reserves in August. Still, gold investors are hard to discourage; otherwise, they would have given up already. "There is some belief though that gold has reached bottom and could come back," Madden says. "In the final analysis, gold behavior is residual to other things, such as the performance of the Dow (Jones Industrial Average)."
(END) DOW JONES NEWS 09-05-97 05:56 PM
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