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Gold/Mining/Energy : Gold Price Monitor -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: marcos who wrote (7743)	2/20/1998 6:37:00 PM
From: Sergio R. Mejia	Respond to of 116763

NY precious metals end lower, led by silver Friday February 20, 5:13 pm Eastern Time NEW YORK, Feb 20 (Reuters) - COMEX and NYMEX precious metals futures ended mostly lower Friday, led by renewed weakness in silver. ''The funds smelt vulnerability here in silver and the question is, who is left to buy now that Warren Buffett has disclosed his hand,'' said Dinsa Mehta, managing director for global commodities for Chase Manhattan. COMEX March silver ended down 29.70 cents at $6.523 an ounce, after the contract traded down to test Thursday's intraday low at $6.480. Total COMEX silver volume was estimated at 22,000 lots. COMEX silver stocks fell a further 248,764 ounces in Thursday night's data to 91,577,050 ounces, a new historic low. In the bullion market, spot silver ended quoted $6.54/59 an ounce, compared to the London Friday fix at $6.765, and the New York close Thursday at $6.82/87. The silver forward price curve remains backwardated though reflecting the tightness in the market while deliveries continue to meet the purchase by Warren Buffett of 129.7 million ounces of silver announced on February 3, but silver lease rates eased further to around three percent for one month. Spot silver prices saw nine year highs at $7.90 an ounce in February after news U.S. billionaire Warren Buffett had bought 129.7 million ounces of silver. ''But there was resistance from India to silver prices above $7.50 an ounce last month, and with the Indian rupee at new lows against the dollar in January, there was extra incentive for Indians to sell silver for a while,'' Chase's Mehta said. But the domestic Indian premium over the world price for silver has recovered this week to a more normal five percent, suggesting re-exports of silver may have now abated, analysts said. India is the world's largest silver consuming country. COMEX April gold ended down $1.70 at $298.70 an ounce, after trading a $300.70-297.80 intraday range. ''There have been some noted producer buy backs in gold in recent weeks and is proving quite sticky on the downside,'' Chase's Mehta said. In the bullion market, spot gold ended quoted $297.00/50 an ounce, compared to the London Friday afternoon fix at $296.70 and the New York close Thursday around $298.70/20. Implied gold lease rates eased further to around 1.30 pct for one month and 1.95 pct for 12 months. In industry news, China's central bank has lowered from Friday the price at which it buys gold to 80.7 yuan per gramme from 88.7 yuan, for gold with purity above 99.9 percent. The central bank cut prices of gold twice last year to try to bring the domestic industry in line with international price levels. The strength of the U.S. dollar and economic slumps in major gold-buying countries in Southeast Asia have cut demand for the metal. In the platinum group metals (PGM) market, NYMEX April platinum ended down $4.70 at $379.20, while NYMEX March palladium closed up $1.10 at $233.00. In the physical PGM market, rhodium prices rose above $500 this week, a level not seen since May 1995. Rhodium, like other PGMs, is mainly used in the manufacture of catalytic converters used in automobile emissions systems to reduce pollution. The prospects for the resumption of exports of PGMs from Russia were dealt a blow Friday when the State Duma, lower house of the Russian parliament. rejected the 1998 draft budget. On its passage hangs the fate of Russian PGM exports in 1998. Russia supplies about 60 pct of the world's palladium and 20 pct of its platinum.