Chinese Gold Miners Lead Market on Wednesday

Chinese gold mining shares were some of the best performers in the market on Wednesday. A remarkable move because gold didn't rise much in price and the yuan came well off its lows of Tuesday.

Gold has languished as an asset in China because housing, stocks and various forms of high-yield products such as WMPs and money moarkets were more attractive investments. The Chinese stock market is more retail, they rely more on technical analysis. Gold is ignored until it isn't. It will take a rising gold price to move the sector higher. I expect gold will gain if depreciation expectations intensify because tight capital controls make gold an attractive alternative asset.

This chart of Zhongjin Gold tells the story in one picture. Most of the gold mining charts are similar, trading near decade lows. The charts are like fractals, you can zoom in or out and the same declining pattern shows up. Aside from a bump for some shares during the 2015 bubble, it's almost consistently down since the 2008 peak for most shares. Cheap sector.