Sentiment tumbled as China then the US increased tariffs on the other's products on Friday.

 

Gold gained allure, also thanks to dovish indications at the Jackson Hole banking symposium in the US.

 

Gold was up around US$1,543 an ounce on the spot market at the time of writing and earlier broke through the A$2,300/oz barrier for the first time in Australian dollar terms.
 
Australian gold miners occupied the top five market risers' spots on the benchmark S&P/ASX200 in early afternoon trade.

 

Saracen Mineral Holdings (ASX: SAR) and Resolute Mining (ASX: RSG) were both up more than 10%, closely followed by Evolution Mining (ASX: EVN) gaining 9%, then Northern Star Resources (ASX: NST) and St Barbara (ASX: SBM) up 8.6% and 7.4% respectively.

 

It followed a strong performance by Toronto gold stocks on Friday. Yamana Gold (TSX: YRI) gained 10% on no news and Pretium Resources (TSX: PVG) touched a one-year high intraday before closing up 9.6%.

 

Newmont Goldcorp (NYSE: NEM) rose 2.1% in New York.

 

Finally, diamond miner Stornoway Diamond Corp (TSX: SWY) was headed in the other direction, hitting a one-year low of C1.5c on Friday as it could face delisting while it fights to maintain solvency.