Uranium May Lead Rally in Metals on Nuclear Revival

Nuclear energy’s revival can best be seen in uranium, which outperformed the metals markets in 2005 and may do so again this year.

Uranium is poised to climb 27 percent to $50 a pound in the next six months because “there’s not a lot of uranium available,” said Jean-Francois Tardif, who put 8.4 percent of his C$300 million ($259 million) Sprott Opportunities Hedge Fund LP into uranium. The Toronto-based fund jumped 39 percent in 2005, when its peers on average returned 9.3 percent, according to Hedge Fund Research Inc. of Chicago.

…Uranium last year gained 76 percent, beating all but one of the 19 commodities in the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index. Only sugar jumped more.

Not even zinc, the favorite this year among commodity specialists surveyed by Bloomberg News in January, will keep pace with uranium. Analysts surveyed then said zinc would offer the best return from the six primary London Metal Exchange markets, advancing 21 percent.

Blomberg