TORONTO (CP) - Globalization of the gold industry has engulfed the key Canadian index tracking gold-company shares.
The S&P;/TSX capped gold index is going international and will include a number of major stocks not listed on the Canadian market.
As of Dec. 18, the name of the index will change to S&P;/TSX global gold index and it will include international mining issuers.
This will give investors "broader company and geographic diversification than the existing methodology and aims to have greater international representation of the gold company performance," says stock exchange operator TSX Group Inc.
It adds that TSX issuers "will still be prominent in the index as TSX Group's exchanges are home to approximately 60 per cent of the world's public mining companies."
The TSX and TSX Venture Exchange list 1,249 mining companies with a total market value approaching $300 billion - from tiny explorers with market caps that would barely buy a Vancouver condominium to the world's biggest gold miner, Barrick Gold Corp., worth $29.5 billion.
