News

March 06, 2010

That Was The Week That Was ... In Australia

By Our Man in Oz

Minews. Good morning Australia. It looks like you had a much happier week.

Oz. The stock market was certainly better. The cricket wasn’t. New Zealand gave us a lesson in how to win, and how to behave properly on the field, in the first of our one-day series. You had a much easier time of it against Bangladesh. So, sticking to financial matters, the best results last week came from three sectors: gold, iron ore and nickel. Mining stocks overall comfortably outperformed the wider market. The gold index was up an eye-catching 7.4 per cent, the metals and mining index added 4.9 per cent, while the all ordinaries could manage a rise of just 2.6 per cent.

Minews. Movements which seem to underline the importance of mining in the Australian economy.

Oz. Correct, but we also had another interesting measure of the importance of mining, in the form of the annual list of Australia’s richest people, as compiled by Forbes magazine. Seven of Australia’s 40 richest people are classified as miners, with Andrew Forrest, the founder and major shareholder of Fortescue Metals Group, reclaiming his title as Australia’s richest person. Gina Rinehart, who also...