Gold, Silver Shares Rise, Outperform Metals

Shares of most gold and silver mining companies maintained the majority of their gains Tuesday afternoon amid a broad-based rally on Wall Street.  The Philadelphia Gold & Silver Index (XAU) was higher by 1.4% at 187.77 in late-day trading, while the S&P 500 Index rose 0.8% to 1,451.95.

Among gold producers, two of the top gainers this afternoon were XAU components AngloGold Ashanti (AU) and Barrick Gold (ABX) – which climbed by 1.9% to $34.72 and by 2.1% to $39.64 per share, respectively.  As for silver stocks, Hecla Mining (HL) jumped 2.2% to $6.57 per share while Pan American Silver (PAAS) added 0.9% to $21.39 per share.

(See how more than 90 gold and silver stocks rank based on valuation, growth potential, and leverage to gold prices at GoldAlert Pro – http://pro.goldalert.com )

Gold and silver equities also continued their recent stretch of outperforming precious metals – a development that had been lacking for the better part of this year.

While the metals moved firmly into the black on Tuesday, COMEX gold futures closed with a more modest gain of $8.70, or 0.5%, at $1,746.30 per ounce.  COMEX silver futures fared slightly better, settling higher by $0.22, or 0.7%, at $32.96 per ounce.

The metals were buoyed in part by weakness in the U.S. Dollar Index, which fell 0.4% to 79.401 this afternoon.

Jeffrey Wright, a managing director at Global Hunter Securities, commented that “Overall sentiment for gold is higher prices in coming weeks, with periods of short-term profit taking…[Gold's] bias will continue to the upside due to QE3 [and] modest economic improvements in Europe, which both contribute to a weaker U.S. dollar.”