LONDON: Gold was little changed in Europe on Monday, consolidating after last week’s more than 3% rise, with strong demand for physical investment products such as gold-backed exchange-traded funds supporting prices.
Spot gold was little changed at $940.20/942.20 an ounce at 1233 GMT from $939.40 late in New York late on Friday.
Among other precious metals, silver also took support from strong investment. Holdings of the biggest silver ETF, the IShares Silver Trust , were at a record 7,607 tonnes on Friday. Spot silver edged down to $13.53/13.61 an ounce from $13.62.
Platinum and palladium remain under considerable pressure from the sluggish outlook for the car industry, a major user of the metals as a component in catalytic converters. Platinum edged up to $1,065/1,070 an ounce from $1,059.50, while palladium was at $215/220 an ounce from $214.
Copper falls: Copper dropped around 3% on Monday as the demand outlook further deteriorated after the Japanese economy posted its biggest contraction in decades and inventories jumped.
Copper for delivery in three-months on the London Metal Exchange fell as low as $3,326.50 a tonne and was at $3,338 a tonne by 1122 GMT, versus Friday’s close of $3,430.
Light metal aluminium dropped to $1,368 per tonne from $1,378 as data showed a massive jump of over 10,000 tonnes in inventories, bringing the total stocks to a record high of 2.94 million tonnes.
Tin was lower at $11,100 from $11,350, despite exports from one of the top producers of the metal fell nearly 38 percent from the same period a year ago, trade ministry data showed on Monday. reuters
