Renaissance Oil Corp. RNSFF

Hedge Funds URANIUM HIGHER PRICES

[gunfighter]

See In the News (C-CCO) Cameco Corp The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday, Jan. 12, edition that for the first time analysts and brokers can recall, hedge fund managers are dipping a toe in the uranium market, buying the nuclear fuel in the same way they would purchase other commodities such as copper, oil or soybeans. The Globe's Wendy Stueck writes that increased hedge fund activity in the uranium sector could lead to increased volatility and higher prices for the metal. "If the activity increased, certainly," prices could be affected, said Jim Cornell, president of Connecticut-based RWE Nukem, the world's biggest nuclear fuel trading company and a subsidiary of German utility RWE. The uranium market has traditionally been relatively stable, with few purchasers and a small group of international brokers, Mr. Cornell said. Much of the buying and selling -- about 90 per cent of total sales volumes of 18 million pounds last year -- has been done through "off-market" transactions aimed at minimizing the impact on spot prices, he said. Hedge funds may not be as genteel. "I don't know if they would do it as discreetly," Mr. Cornell said. "They are speculators and they want volatility."