UPDATE 1-Funds bail on gold miners in Q3 as bullion prices tumble

(Recasts first paragraph; adds comment, details, background
throughout)
By Marcy Nicholson
NEW YORK, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Soros Fund Management LLC sold
its stakes in two gold miners while hedge fund Paulson & Co cut
its stake in another as bullion prices fell to 5-1/2-year lows,
filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission showed
on Monday.
Soros eliminated its stakes in the Market Vectors Gold
Miners exchange-traded fund (ETF) and Barrick Gold Corp in the
third quarter of 2015, which were valued at a total of $33.6
million at the end of the prior quarter, 13F-HR filings showed.
Paulson & Co reduced its stake in AngloGold Ashanti Ltd by 1
million shares during the quarter while CI Investments Inc
CIXCI.UL , an investment manager of Toronto-based CI Financial
Corp CIX.TO , raised its stake in SPDR Gold Trust GLD.P to
601,479 shares by the end of September.
CI Financial's stake was up 5 percent from the end of June,
though its value fell to $64.3 million by the end of September
from $64.6 million at the end of the second quarter.
"I see selling of gold miners and buying of the actual
physical gold," Mike McGlone, director of research for ETF
Securities in New York.
Caxton Corp cut its stake in Market Vectors Gold Miner ETF
by two-thirds to 31,733 shares worth $436,000 by the end of the
third quarter.
In July, the price of spot gold XAU= tumbled 6.6 percent,
their weakest monthly performance in more than two years after a
steep selloff in Shanghai and New York. Expectations for the
U.S. Federal Reserve to raise interest rates as early as
September also pressured prices.
The Fed did not raise rates then, but many economists and
investors now expect a hike in December, pushing gold prices to
a six-year low at $1,074.26 an ounce last week.
New York-based Paulson & Co, led by longtime gold bull John
Paulson, left stakes unchanged in miners IAMGOLD Corp IMG.TO
and NovaGold Resources NG.TO , as well as the gold-backed ETF
SPDR Gold Trust GLD.P .