Gold holds in range, silver up post New York start 1:22 a.m. Mar 10, 1998 Eastern LONDON, March 10 (Reuters) -
Gold held its recent range during European trading on Tuesday while silver rose firmly in early New York business along with white metals palladium and platinum, dealers said.
Gold fixed at $294.40 an ounce in the afternoon, just up on the
morning's $294.30, as the spot held within a tight range during
reasonable trade.
The metal was last at $294.60/$295.10 against its previous New York
close at $294.25/$294.65.
''There's been some good business going on but it's been stuck within
the $294-$295 range,'' said one London dealer.
''Gold is off a bit in the very short term, I feel sure that gold is a
candidate for further weakness,'' he said, adding that market rumours
that producers might offer to buy central bank gold holdings in return
for their forward sales positions were not helpful to the price.
''The concept is frightening. A central bank will still have to report the gold that they have sold, that's part of the principal of transparency of markets these days, and equally, any mining company will have to report the buy back to shareholders,'' he said.
''The very part of the market they are trying to reassure about sales,
namely the funds, I think will be encouraged to sell in the aftermath of anything like that,'' he said.
Talk of some sort of deal between central bankers and miners, which
has done the rounds since last month's World Economic Forum in
Davos, Switzerland, has had little obvious impact on a dull gold price.
Gold lease rates, which indicate how much gold is available in the
bullion lending market, fell back once again on Tuesday, with one
month metal at 2.25 percent according to London Bullion Market
Association figures.
One month metal was at 2.72 percent on Monday and 3.23 on Friday,
prompting questions as to whether a central bank might have sold
gold or withdrawn metal from the market for some other reason.
Away from a range-bound gold price, silver managed a decent rally
on Tuesday after New York trade began.
''Silver's showing a little more strength, having straddled $6.10/$6.13 it's managed to move higher,'' said the London dealer.
''That's still very much in play, probably helped a little bit by the talk of continuing tightness in palladium,'' the dealer added.
Silver remained in backwardation, with metal for nearby delivery
dearer than metal for delivery further out, a sign of tightness in
reported stocks.
Platinum also managed a decent rally during New York time, helped
by overnight gains in palladium and then by silver's rally in early New York trade. It was last quoted at $388.50/$390.50 versus Monday's
New York close of $383.50/$385.50 an ounce.
Palladium, after strong gains in Japanese trade early on in the day,
gave up some of its firmness to be last quoted at $246.00/$248.00,
off the day's highs at $249.00 bid but up on its New York close of
$242.50/$244.50 an ounce.
((Patrick Chalmers, London Newsroom +44 171 542 8057.
london.commodities.desk+reuters.com)) |
