Foresight Energy rose 22% to $US7, Cloud Peak Energy was up by 14.4% to $7.54, and Westmoreland Coal soared by 19.2% to $15.21.
This was in contrast to the Australian Securities Exchange, where coal mining favourites Whitehaven Coal and Stanmore Coal plunged 4% and 3% respectively yesterday as the Trump victory looked more likely.
To be fair, those companies were not orphans as the Australian market was battered due to the uncertainty over the US election. The only big winner yesterday, besides Trump, were the gold miners who enjoyed quite a run.
Despite gloomy predictions about the backlash on US financial markets if Trump was victorious, overall they were buoyant after the President-elect gave a victory speech calling for co-operation ahead.
Coal mining states such as West Virginia, Ohio and Wyoming were big supporters of Trump, responding to his pro-coal stance. In key swing state Pennsylvannia the kneejerk reaction to outgoing President Barrack Obama’s war on coal turned into a Woolloomooloo uppercut for the Democrats.
Trump’s running mate Mike Pence told Pennsylvania, which has a sizeable but declining coal sector, that the Republican ticket was committed to an “all-of-the-above energy strategy that included coal”.
“On day one of a Trump-Pence administration, the war on coal comes to an end,” Pence said. “Trump digs coal.”
Hilary Clinton’s camp favoured the growth of renewals to help a lid on emissions, which would have led to more job losses in the Illinois Basin around Ohio and Kentucky.
