Randgold Resources slips on downgrades despite gold price rise

As markets continue to slump on the combination of geopolitical concerns and worries about the global economy, investors are resorting to the traditional havens of precious metals, pushing the gold and silver price higher.

This of course should benefit precious metal miners, but in the case of Randgold Resources, it appears not.

As the slump in the FTSE 100 accelerates - the index is now down 76.84 points at 6653.27 - Randgold is one of the biggest fallers, down 147p at £49.73.

The damage has been done by a couple of analyst downgrades ahead of results next week. UBS has moved from buy to neutral, not on any underlying problem but after the company's recent strong performance:

In our view Randgold remains the best managed and highest quality gold stock in our European coverage universe and we continue to believe the stock deserves to trade at a premium to its gold peers. However after sustained outperformance in 2014 we believe the risk versus reward is more balanced at current levels. We downgrade from buy to neutral based on valuation versus peers and potential for disappointment at the second quarter 2014 results. However, longer term we continue to remain positive on Randgold's fundamentals and would view any near-term weakness as an opportunity to revisit our investment stance.

Meanwhile RBC has cut its target price from £53 to £52 but kept its sector perform rating.