KALGOORLIE (miningweekly.com) – Strong commodity prices during the year drove advisory firm Deloitte’s Western Australian (WA) Index up by 18.9% during the year ended June, with the index closing at A$149.3-billion.

In a special annual edition, released to coincide with the Diggers & Dealers conference, Deloitte noted that most of the commodity gains had been recorded in the first half of the year.

During the year under review nickel and palladium proved to be the top performers, with price growth of 39% and 31.2% respectively. Precious metals in gold and silver also experienced strong gains of 8.3% and 10.6% respectively.

Deloitte clients & markets partner for WA, Tim Richards, said the 2014 result was driven by significant gains across a number of commodities and strong performances by some of the Index’s heavyweights.

Coal miner Wesfarmers saw a 20.1% increase, oil and gas miner Woodside grew by 17.3% and iron-ore giant Fortescue Metalsgrew by 43.1%, all experiencing significant growth in market capitalisation, representing 74% of the total increase in market capitalisation of the Deloitte WA Index for 2014.
 
“The performance of companies in the Deloitte WA Index this year has not been without its trials, with global economic sentiment rising and falling over the course of the year as a result of events such as the political turmoil in the Ukraine and fears of a slowing Chinese economy,” Richards said.

“The result was a mixed impact on commodities and key players in the WA market.

“At this year’s Diggers & Dealers, I expect the gold mining industry will be a major focus with issues such as price volatility, cost reduction and concerns over state royalties gaining momentum,” he said.

Compared to the Index’s growth, the ASX gained 12.7% and global indices also had strong years.

Consumer sentiment has continued to slowly recover on the back of positive economic data from a number of Western countries, Richards said, combined with signs of increased manufacturing activity in the global market.