Spot gold moves in narrow range
09/28/98 04:34 ET
Tokyo--Sep 28--Spot gold hovered around Friday's
late US market level as players stood on the sidelines due to gold's
unclear price direction, dealers said.
Spot platinum also remained in a narrow range with
players unable to determine a price direction from the US dollar/yen,
dealers said.
Some players who late last week had anticipated
short-covering would push nearby gold to above $300 were disappointed,
given the rangebound price movement during Asia trade, dealers said.
Uncertainty about the near-term direction of prices made players
hesitant about opening fresh gold positions today, they said.
Dealers said there were few sellers in the market
today. They said that although Australian dollar-denominated spot gold
prices topped Aus $500 today, little selling by Australian producers
was noted.
In addition, dealers wanting to sell gold have been
unable to borrow large amounts of gold in the market because recent
reports of credit difficulties at a few international financial firms,
such as Long-Term Captial Management, have made some gold holders
reluctant to lend, they said.
Due to reduced lending, 1-month lease rates for
gold have risen to around 2.0%, up from 0.5% in early September, they
said. Some dealers expect spot gold to fall in the near term because
players who bought gold on Friday may liquidate part of the positions
if spot gold prices fail to rise.
Other dealers expect nearby spot gold to move
between US $287 and $300 per ounce.
Speculators on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange were
hesitant to open short and long platinum positions today because they
could not determine the price direction from the dollar/yen, which
moved between 135 and 137 today, dealers said.
Many players have continued to expect TOCOM
speculators to cover their Oct 98 short positions this week, despite
the fact these speculators did not reduce their shorts today, TOCOM
dealers said.
Spot precious metals prices are in US dlrs per
ounce:
Tokyo 0630 GMT Tokyo 0000 GMT Late New York
Gold 294.40-294.90 293.90-294.40 293.90-294.40
Silver 5.19-5.22 5.19-5.22 5.15-5.18
Platinum 359.00-361.00 359.00-361.00 360.00-362.00
Palladium 285.00-290.00 284.50-289.50 285.00-290.00
Tokyo Commodity Exchange for Industry futures for
Aug 1999 delivery.
Prices in yen per gram, except silver in yen per 10 grams:
Settlement Open Chg on previous day's close
Gold 1270 1273 +4.0
Silver 220.8 224.7 -0.1
Platinum 1496 1504 -7.0
Palladium 1160 1175 -9.0
-- Hiroyuki Fujiwara and Polly Yam in Hong Kong, Bridge News |
