Dallas, Texas 09/19/2013 (Financialstrend) -Headquartered in Randfontein, South Africa’s third largest gold producer, Harmony Gold Mining Co. (ADR) (NYSE:HMY), is primarily engaged in gold exploration, extraction, processing and smelting. The company is also involved in exploration of silver, copper, and molybdenum. Including around 9 processing plants, the company has number of surface operations and around 10 underground operations. The stock surged 14.13% on Wednesday, September 18, 2013 to close at $4.12. The trade volumes remained 8.26 million and its 30-day average volume is 4.08 million. Its 52-week range is between $3.29 and $9.66. Harmony Gold Mining Co. (ADR) (NYSE:HMY)’s market capitalization is $1.79 billion.
The intraday gain was largely powered by Fed announcement to keep the stimulus measures unchanged. Where the experts were expecting the Fed to cut its bond buying program below $15 billion, it announced to continue buying $85 billion in bonds. Following this, the gold futures jumped in celebration of Fed’s surprise announcement, effectively boosting South African gold and gold-mining related companies which posted significant intraday gains. These include Harmony Gold Mining Co. (ADR) (NYSE:HMY) – 14.13%, Gold Fields Limited (ADR) (NYSE:GFI) – 11.28%, DRDGOLD Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:DRD) – 11.13% and AngloGold Ashanti Limited (NYSE:AU) – 8.91%.
Earlier last week the stock plunged almost 10% following the press release issued by the company that mentioned that the weeklong disruption in operations due to the strike call given by the national union of mine workers would significantly impact its quarterly performance alongside affecting the employees earnings. However, the operations at all Harmony Gold Mining (NYSE:HMY)’s mines have resumed to normal as of September 8, midnight. The negotiation has entered into the agreement for performance based incentives with effect from July 2014 and around 7.5% to 8% hike in wages for class 4 and class 5 employees.
Equities research analysts at ZACKS downgraded the stock to ‘underperform’ given the volatility in gold prices, labor unrest and high operating costs of the company.
