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

To: Alex who wrote (32555)	4/26/1999 3:13:00 PM
From: lorne	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116762

Gold hit by New York fund short sales on IMF news By Patrick Chalmers LONDON, April 26 (Reuters) - Gold fell $1.50 with the start of U.S. trade on Monday as New York funds sold short following market data on COMEX positions and weekend talk about IMF gold sales, London dealers and analysts said. Prices had earlier ticked sideways through European business as dealers ignored news that Britain would push for International Monetary Fund gold sales of 10 million ounces, the top end of market estimates. New York took a different line, as U.S. dealers read Britain's call for 10-million-ounce sales and late Friday data showing lower net short COMEX positions as a signal to sell. "It was deadly quiet all morning but the funds just hit the ground selling when New York opened," said one London analyst. Gold dropped from around $283.00 as New York opened to settle near $281.50/$282.00, more than $1.50 down on Friday's close in New York. London bullion dealers said earlier that at $283.00, gold had discounted the possibility 10-million-ounce IMF sales. As important on Monday, the analyst said, was late Friday data from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission showing non-commercial positions in COMEX futures of 12,075 contracts long and 85,765 short as at April 20. Short positions were down from early April levels in the high 90,000s, encouraging fresh fund sales, the analyst said. IMF gold sales talk has grown louder in recent weeks, losing much of its capacity to shock since first French President Jacques Chirac and then his U.S. counterpart Bill Clinton pledged support for the poor-country debt relief plan. This week's Washington meetings of finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven industrial nations, while not slated formally to cover IMF sales, were seen as likely to tackle the issue. Kamal Naqvi, metals analyst at Macquarie Equities in London, said gold could probably live with news that ministers had backed the idea of 5 to 10-million-ounce sales. "Over ten million would obviously be negative as would comments that this could be the start of an annual programme of sales rather than a one-off as is the market expectation now." Naqvi said a likely outcome would be for ministers to agree sales of 10 million ounces and undertake to recommend it to the next IMF meeting. Even then, any sale would have to win U.S. congressional approval before going ahead, which could yet block the process. reuters.com