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Gold/Mining/Energy : Gold Price Monitor -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: gregor who wrote (8821)	3/25/1998 12:04:00 PM
From: Enigma	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116753

An interesting idea - I wonder, though, how far out of the money most of them will be. You do mean warrants, not options?

To: gregor who wrote (8821)	3/25/1998 8:26:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Respond to of 116753

Investors shun new S.Africa mining futures contract 04:36 a.m. Mar 25, 1998 Eastern By Paul Richardson JOHANNESBURG, March 25 (Reuters) - Three days after the introduction of a new South African futures contract based on mining shares not a single trade has been registered, reflecting investors' lack of faith in the sector, analysts said on Wednesday. The June 1998 mining contract was listed on Monday to replace the gold shares contract, which was withdrawn last Friday after gold price weakness reduced trading to a trickle. ''There is no real interest in it,'' said Daron Walker, senior equity trader at Genbel Securities Ltd. ''Right now people are not interested because of the low gold price.'' Stuart Rees, chief executive of the South African Futures Exchange, said the lack of liquidity in the contract had been expected. ''When we delisted the gold contract we did not expect the mining to take off. Mining is not the flavour of the month right now,'' Rees said. ''We didn't expect it to generate any interest.'' Analysts said the lack of interest in the new contract was compounded by two factors -- the fact that Anglo American Corp (AACJ.J) and De Beers (DBRS.J) make up half of the index and a lack of clarity on recent mergers in the gold industry. Gold Fields of South Africa (GLDF.J) and Gencor (GMFJ.J) have merged their gold interests into a new company called Gold Fields Ltd (GFLJ.J), while Anglo American is regrouping its gold assets into a firm called Anglogold. A full picture of the new gold mining companies is not expected until mid-year. ''Traditionally the gold was bad anyway. We will probably find the new mining contract will become more active when there is clarity on the recent corporate action,'' one trader said. ''If we see gold above $300 and holding and then it starts to move positive from there we might see a bit of interest,'' said one trader. ''But on the whole there is just no real interest in gold at all at the moment.'' Rees said that while he accepted the new mining contract was unpopular, Safex would give it time to gain acceptance in the market. ''As we have seen in the past things change and the economy becomes more conducive to mining shares from time to time. We had a time when industrial contracts were unpopular and now they are very popular,'' he said. Rees, acknowledging the fact that the mining contract was heavily weighted to Anglo and De Beers, said the exchange was mulling the introduction of a strictly mining producers' index. ''We have thought of a purer mining index. It is something that is being bandied about,'' Rees said. ''It would be strictly a mining producers' index which would do away with a lot of the pyramids and would probably have quite a lot of volatility. ''But if it is ever going to see the light of day it will take a very long time. We need to give the mining contract a chance to get going,'' he said. At 0830 GMT on Wednesday, the near dated mining contract was bid at 5,150 and offered at 5,250 but remained untraded. ((Johannesburg newsroom, +27 11 482-1003 newsroom+reuters.co.za)) ^REUTERS@ Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.