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

To: Little Joe who wrote (18597)	9/12/1998 3:42:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116764

Bingo! I have connected Clinton and Gold directly! Clinton report casts pall over S.Africa stocks 09:35 a.m. Sep 11, 1998 Eastern By Allan Seccombe JOHANNESBURG, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Traders joke about queues forming on window ledges while the turmoil rattling international markets continues, and South African markets are no exception with more doom and gloom expected next week. But gold shares have made those standing on the ledge think twice about the jump. Bullion has rallied strongly as the U.S. markets are battered by speculation over President Bill Clinton's future after he admitted an ''inappropriate relationship'' with Monica Lewinsky. Bullion has surged to $294 an ounce from a close in New York of $290.10, and, with the rand weakening to 6.3275 (bid) versus the dollar at 1120 GMT from 6.2375 late on Thursday, gold shares have become very attractive indeed, say traders. ''When gold starts rising you just know there are very big problems in the markets,'' said Jacques Potgieter, a technical equity analyst at Societe General Frankel Pollak. ''The gold price is rising because investors want a safe place to put their money and protect their capital. Gold has come back and showed that it is an old faithful and that it is not quite time to write it off as a hedging instrument,'' he said. With the the world markets in crisis and the South African bourse tracking every movement, gold shares offered a safe bet, he added. Friday's fall on the All Share index of 2.86 percent or 138.8 points at 4,713.9 by 1220 GMT was distorted by the All Gold index cruising steadily in positive territory. It was up 6.2 percent or 62.9 points at 1,078.1. ''The Clinton report will have an effect on the market and it will make things very unstable next week. It is also making the dollar unstable and that is making gold attractive,'' said Phillip Baumgardt, a portfolio manager at ABN AMRO. SGFP's Potgieter said the All Share index that has fallen over 40 percent from its April high of 4,791.1 to 4,711.5 by Friday's mid-afternoon trade could fall as low as 4,240 if it breached the 4,500 resistance level. ''I know it sounds bad, but I am bullish compared to some other institutions.'' Industrials have been hit hard over the past week losing 569.5 points to 5,265.6 from a week high on Tuesday of 5,835.1. ''A catalyst for for recovery in our market is when interest rates start coming down, but early indications are going to stay up for a bit longer than we anticipated. They are choking growth and that can be seen in the stock market,'' Potgieter said. Interest rates have risen seven percentage points to 25 percent from 18 percent in May when speculators savaged the rand causing it to lose over 20 percent of its value against the dollar. ((Johannesburg newsroom, +27-11 482-1003, newsroom+reuters.co.za)) Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited.