LONDON: Gold, whose movements often dictate platinum, held near New York levels. On Wednesday spot gold was trading at $736.05 an ounce versus $736.35 an ounce in New York late on Tuesday.
“For now gold is likely to remain in the current $720-765 range,” analyst James Moore at Thebulliondesk.com said, adding bullion was looking at currency markets for direction.
Gold moves were range-bound. “A lot of the bad news and policy decisions have now been factored in,” Tom Kendall, precious metals strategist at Mitsubishi Corp said, adding the market was waiting for a fresh news for direction. New York gold futures rose $3.6 an ounce to $736.3. Silver was at $9.45/9.53 from $9.60 and palladium at $211.50/219.50 from $213.
Precious metals: Platinum held firm after rising as much as 3 percent on Wednesday after an industry report predicted demand could still rise and a mine closure triggered short covering, while gold was steady.
Precious metals traded range-bound, keeping an eye on the currency markets, as the dollar inched up against a basket of currencies while falling oil prices capped possible gains of bullion.
Platinum was trading at $829.00 an ounce by 1055 GMT after hitting a session high of $850 an ounce earlier and compared with $824.50 an ounce in New York late on Tuesday, when it gained around 2 percent.
“Platinum has risen on the combination of short-covering and people taking the Johnson Matthey report as not perhaps being as bearish as they might have seen,” Kendall said. Precious metals refiner Johnson Matthey said global demand for platinum catalytic converters would climb 2 percent in 2008 on higher consumption in Europe and emerging economies, despite a sharp decline in North America.
Yukuji Sonoda, precious metals analyst at Daiichi Commodities in Tokyo, said Johnson Matthey’s price range of $700 to $1,400 an ounce for platinum was reasonable but demand remained in doubt. “There’s no actual demand at this moment. Jewellery and auto companies are not buying.”
Platinum roared to a record $2,290 in March as a power shortage in main producer South Africa disrupted mining. But prices have tumbled since then on deteriorating car sales, and platinum also tracked declines in gold as fears about the global economic slowdown deepened. reuters
