Monday June 21, 11:20 am Eastern Time
Gold quiet in dull European trade, PGMs softer
LONDON, June 21 (Reuters) - Gold traded in a narrow band in late European precious metals trade on Monday as the market recovered from last Friday's gyrations, dealers said.
Silver edged slightly higher while platinum and palladium lost ground and were both moving lower.
Gold was last quoted at $258.80/$259.30 a troy ounce, down from Friday's New York close at $259.30/$259.60.
''All the action was on Friday and we are back at square one. It looks like Friday was just a blip and we haven't seen very much today,'' one dealer said.
Gold moved higher on Friday after the Swiss parliament rejected a constitutional amendment which would have eased the way for big gold sales but retraced the move after the Swiss central bank said it still planned to sell gold.
Dealers said gold's move illustrated the nervousness of the market ahead of the first sale of British gold from reserves on July 6.
Britain's announcement that it would sell 58 percent of its 715 tonnes of gold reserves, starting next month with 25 tonnes, saw the price fall from near $290.00 a troy ounce before the announcement.
Dealers said they expected a lull in the gold market before next month's auction, due to be conducted by the Bank of England, but saw bullion supported by physical buying from $250.00 to $255.00 if it fell through the $258.00 level.
The market was also unsettled by the increasing short positions on COMEX.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission released its biweekly commitments of traders report on Friday, which showed that net speculative shorts had risen by nearly 6,215 contracts to a total of near 8.5 million ounces, or about 264 tonnes, as of June 15.
Silver moved higher and was last quoted at $4.98/$5.01 a troy ounce from the New York close at $4.95/$4.98.
Platinum and palladium slipped lower in Europe with platinum last quoted at $347.00/$349.00 against the New York close at $351.20/$353.20. Palladium was also lower at $334.00/$339.00 from $339.50/$344.50.
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