LONDON: Gold held firm on Wednesday after a weak Portuguese debt auction stoked concerns over the fragility of the eurozone banking sector, knocking the euro, but gains were limited by softer investment demand.
A 6.1-tonne fall in holdings of the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, the SPDR Gold Trust, on Tuesday, their biggest one-day decline since December, indicates waning investor confidence in the metal, analysts said.
Spot gold was bid at $1,192.85 an ounce at 1502 GMT, against $1,191.40 late in New York on Tuesday. US gold futures for August delivery rose $1.50 an ounce to $1,193.20.
Gold has slipped since reaching a record $1,264.90 an ounce at the end of June, boosted by investment in the metal as a haven from volatility in other markets amid concerns over the economic outlook and euro zone sovereign debt levels.
Among other precious metals, silver was at $17.74 an ounce versus $17.65, platinum at $1,521.50 against $1,512.95 and palladium at $451.0 versus $449.53.
Copper rises: Copper rose to its highest in more than three-weeks on Wednesday due to strong physical and Chinese buying and falling inventories, but traders said economic growth worries were likely to keep a lid on prices.
Copper’s rise lifted other industrial metals. Zinc climbed to a seven-week peak, while tin hit its highest since April 30. Battery-material lead saw a two-month high.
Benchmark copper for three-month delivery on the London Metal Exchange traded at $6,839 a tonne by 1441 GMT, from $6,637 on Tuesday. The metal, used in construction and wiring, earlier touched $6,874.75, its highest since June 28.
Copper has been stuck in a range of around $6,300 to $6,900 since early June. Reuters’ mid-year metals price poll showed copper was expected to average $6,878 a tonne this year from $7,077 a tonne in the January poll.
For aluminium the number was an unchanged $2,094 a tonne.
Copper stocks fell 1,975 tonnes to 417,625 tonnes, down from near seven-year highs at 555,075 tonnes hit in mid-February.
Industry data showed, in the first four months of the year the copper market had moved into a deficit of 67,000 tonnes, from a 74,000 surplus in the same year-ago period.
Aluminium traded at $1,995 versus $1,971. Zinc was last at $1,914.50 a tonne from $1,875 and tin was last bid at $18,370 from $18,240.
Steel-making ingredient nickel traded at $19,330 a tonne from $19,125, while lead gained to $1,864 from $1,837. reuters
