THE TIPSTER
WHEN Rio Tinto becomes the first of the big miners to update the market this year with its full-year report, there will be plenty of informative nuggets for investors to dig through in the update. The memory of Alcoa’s update and bullish forecast last week is still fresh in everyone’s mind. Traders will be hoping that Alcoa is acting as the canary for the mining industry as a whole, signaling a good year ahead, and that Rio can echo the statement with expectations of yet more growth from the seemingly-insatiable dragon economy of China. IG Index quotes Rio Tinto at 3,563.4p-3,569.6p.
As if 2011 wasn’t bad enough for Man Group, 2012 has started with a 15 per cent fall in its share price, following a slew of broker downgrades. It reports a nine-month earnings update on Wednesday. Should it disappoint we could see its shares test the 100p level, which might be a good buying opportunity. Spread Co offers a spread on Man Group of 109.14p-109.5p.
The price of silver has staged a recovery after slumping towards $26 per ounce just before Christmas. It is now hovering around $30 and this has helped to lift the share price of Fresnillo, the Mexican silver miner. It rallied from below £15.00 to over £18.00 in the space of a fortnight, but has since retreated. GFT’s latest quote is 1,699p-1,702p.