By Lisa Sanders www.CBSMarketWatch.com May 16, 2001 NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- Strength in the June gold contract Wednesday gave equities a lift and propelled both of the major metals indices higher by more than 4 percent. The CBOE Gold Index 1.88 to 42.13, while the Philadelphia Gold and Silver Index added 2.53 to 61.10. Individually, Homestake Mining rose by 5.7 percent, or 38 cents, to trade at $7.03, and Newmont Mining climbed 7.6 percent, or $1.59, to trade at $22.40. Gold futures prices added value Wednesday on concerns about low short-term supplies, said Larry Baer, gold analyst at Spike Trading. Gold for June delivery added 31 cents to trade at $271.60. Gold lease rates, the borrowing rates for the precious metal, on Wednesday were at 2.3313 percent for one month, at 2.10 percent for six months and at 2.21 percent for one year. Gold's move higher "is signaling that the U.S. dollar is on the verge of declining," said John Mesrobian, president of Constantinople Advisors. "There are signs that the Japanese and others are selling U.S. assets and bringing them home, which will affect the U.S. dollar. This is bullish for gold and gold stocks." In other metals action, July silver added 7 cents to $4.39 an ounce. On the supply end, Comex gold inventories were down 7,330 ounces at 823,091 ounces compared to the previous session, and silver stocks were unchanged at 96,247,442 ounces. July platinum added $2.50 to $612.50 an ounce, while June palladium tacked on $3 to $643 an ounce. Copper for July delivery declined by 0.35 cent to 75.15 an ounce. As of Wednesday, London Metals Exchange warehouse stocks fell 1,075 tons to 436,975 tons. Late Tuesday, COMEX stocks were up 1,404 tons to 132,925 tons. July aluminum shed 0.55 cent to 69.90. The CRB/Bridge Index, a broad-based measure of commodity futures markets, shed 0.1 percent to 215.87. -END- Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/