/ 11 May 1999

WEAK OPEN FOR GOLD FIELDS

GOLD Fields, born from a merger of Gold Fields Ltd and Driefontein, made a dull debut in Johannesburg on Monday as investors held shy of bullion shares after the metal’s latest tumble. Shares in the new Gold Fields, the world’s second largest gold producer, opened at a below-expectation R24,25, feeling the weight of Friday’s news that the UK Treasury will sell more than half its gold reserves. The counter drifted as low as R22,50 on an overall weak Johannesburg gold board where the gold index slumped more than 5%. Gold Fields finished the day at R23. “We expected it to trade closer to R30. With the Driefontein-Gold Fields merger, they have brought a lot of value into it,” said Piet Stoltz, a gold analyst at BOE Securities, one of the sponsoring brokers. Later in the day, Gold Fields had a lacklustre opening on the US Nasdaq bourse where it assumed Driefontein’s Level II ADR listing..