(Updates prices)
By Lewa Pardomuan
SINGAPORE, March 11 (Reuters) - Platinum, used in auto
catalysts and jewellery, rallied 4 percent on Tuesday as
speculators jumped into the market after a drop the previous
day, while gold tracked oil's fall from record highs.
Spot platinum <XPT=> hit a high of $2,060 an ounce, up from
$1,980/1,990 late in New York on Monday, when it tumbled to its
lowest in almost four weeks at $1,926 on news that miners in
South Africa would get more power supply. Supply concerns
triggered by mining disruption in South Africa, the world's
main producer, propelled platinum to record high at $2,290 an
ounce on March 4. The metal has risen as much as 50 percent in
2008.
"Fundamentally, platinum market is still driven by fears of
tight supply. It's difficult for us to expect miners to go back
to full operation without enough power supply," said a precious
metals dealer in Tokyo.
"Investment demand is quite strong and I don't think supply
will catch up with demand. Of course, the price will go up
quite fast, but profit taking will also happen because
speculators want to enjoy a huge amount of profit," he said.
South African power utility Eskom [] is in the
process of restoring power to 95 percent of normal levels to
the mining industry and will, following the same process,
restore power IN full eventually to all industrial consumers
including mining companies, the power industry source said.
Analysts say the global platinum deficit could widen to
500,000 to 600,000 ounces by the end of 2008, compared with
about 265,000 ounces in 2007. The market had a surplus of
65,000 ounces in 2006, following seven successive years of
deficits.
The benchmark platinum futures contract for February
delivery <0#JPL:> on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange ended the
morning session 125 yen per gram lower at 6,582 yen, hit by a
firming yen.
"Tokyo prices are off lows mainly due to bargain-hunting,
but platinum stays in a downward corrective phase due to
growing views that supply situation in South Africa would
improve," said Hisaaki Tasaka, market analyst at Ace Koeki Co
Ltd in Tokyo.
"I think the market would need further downward correction
before it can climb strongly again."
Gold <XAU=> slipped to $973.50/974.30 an ounce from
$974.10/974.90 late in New York on Monday and remained below a
record high of $991.90 an ounce hit on March 6.
Gold struggled to sustain the uptrend after a failure to
break through the $1,000 barrier last week. It has gone up as
much as 19 percent in 2008, driven by record high oil and
expectations of further interest rates cuts in the United
States.
"The key resistance is currently at $992 and only on a
breach of this level gold's move beyond $1,000 can be
confirmed," said Pradeep Unni, analyst at Vision Commodities in
Dubai.
"Alternatively, if gold slips below $970, then it could
slide to $940 levels."
U.S. crude oil futures edged down on Tuesday, after hitting
a record near $108 a barrel theprevious day as investors sought
a hedge against a weak dollarand inflation. []
Gold futures for April delivery <GCJ8> on the COMEX
division of the New York Mercantile Exchange rose $4.1 an ounce
to $975.9.
Silver <XAG=> edged up to $19.68/19.73 an ounce from
$19.64/19.69. Spot palladium <XPD=> rose to $473/478 an ounce
from $467/472 an ounce.
Precious metals prices at 0245 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg
Turnover
Spot Gold 973.80 0.80 +0.08 16.94
Spot Silver 19.69 0.03 +0.15 33.31
Spot Platinum 2042.00 62.00 +3.13 34.34
Spot Palladium 471.00 4.00 +0.86 27.99
TOCOM Gold 3210.00 -34.00 -1.05 4.90
30218
TOCOM Platinum 6582.00 -125.00 -1.86 23.28
17845
TOCOM Silver 649.00 -25.80 -3.82 19.96
2230
TOCOM Palladium 1612.00 -100.00 -5.84 19.32
4685
Euro/Dollar 1.5362
Dollar/Yen 101.77
TOCOM prices in yen per gram, except TOCOM silver which is
priced in yen per 10 grams. Spot prices in $ per ounce.
(Additional reporting by Chikafumi Hodo in Tokyo; Editing by
Tomasz Janowski)
