Tuesday May 17, 2016 08:38

(Kitco News) - Soros Fund Management LLC returned to the gold market and also bought shares in the world’s largest gold-mining company during the first quarter, while well-known hedge fund manager John Paulson trimmed his gold holdings, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Institutional investment managers must file a Form 13F, showing their major holdings, with the SEC within 45 days of the end of the quarter.

This filing showed Soros Fund Management held 19.4 million shares in Barrick Gold Corp. as of the end of the first quarter. The value of the shares was listed at $264 million.

The filing also showed that Soros held call options on 1.05 million shares in the SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund. This was valued at $123 million.

By contrast, the filing for the end of last year showed Soros had no holdings in either Barrick or the SPDR gold ETF.

The hedge fund Paulson & Co. cut its holdings in SPDR Gold Shares, the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, to around 4.8 million shares as of March 31, the filing showed. It had stood around 5.8 million shares as of Dec. 31.

As of the end of the first quarter, Paulson's SPDR gold holdings were valued at $561 million. Paulson & Co. also held shares in several gold-mining companies, including Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd., Iamgold Corp., Randgold Resources Ltd.

Gold prices rallied sharply in the first quarter, bolstered by weakness at the time in global equity markets and ideas that financial-market volatility coupled with weaker U.S. economic data would delay the Federal Reserve from further rate hikes after the 25-basis point hike in December.

By Allen Sykora of Kitco News