(recasts, adds quotes, changes prices, pvs SINGAPORE)
By Atul Prakash
LONDON, May 9 (Reuters) - Platinum jumped 4 percent to a
seven-week high on Friday on investor buying ahead of the launch
of platinum exchange-traded notes (ETNs), while gold hit a
one-week peak on a weaker dollar and record high oil prices.
Investment bank UBS <UBSN.VX> will soon launch two ETNs
offering long and short trading strategies in platinum. ETNs,
unlike exchange-traded funds, do not purchase physical platinum
to back the number of shares sold.
According to CNBC television and NYSE Euronext exchange
data, the two ETNs -- UBS E-Tracs Long Platinum ETN <PTM.P> and
UBS E-Tracs Short Platinum ETN <PTD.P> -- will begin trading
soon on the NYSE Arca platform. []
"It won't have an impact on the availability of physical
metal nor on lease rates," said Tom Kendall, metals strategist
at Mitsubishi Corporation.
But he added that it offers another route by which U.S.
mutual and pension funds, which cannot directly invect in
commodity derivatives, can 'ain exposure to platinum.
"Fundamentally you cannot justify the kind of price move we
have seen so far today. Gold and silver seem to have stalled
ahead of the U.S. market open and sentiment there will have big
influence on platinum," he added.
Spot platinum <XPT=> rose as high as $2,095 an ounce and was
at $2,087.50/2,107.50 at 1032 GMT, against $2,008.50/2,028.50 in
New York late on Thursday.
Dealers also reported platinum purchases in Japan, Europe
and the United States as auto makers stocked up for their
second-quarter requirements, but the metal was still more than
$200 below a lifetime high of $2,290 an ounce hit on March 4.
"The launch of another ETF type product in the already tight
platinum market triggered flurries of buying interest
yesterday," said James Moore, analyst at TheBullionDesk.com.
"Given the already tight conditions and the market's
nervousness towards a deeper supply deficit, we could quite
easily see the metal set new highs," he said in a report.
OTHER METALS ALSO GAIN
Platinum's major industrial use is in making autcatalysts,
particularly diesel catalysts, as it helps clean environmentally
damaging fumes from motor exhausts. It is also used in making
jewellery.
In other markets, the most active Tokyo platinum contract
jumped by the daily 300 yen limit. The benchmark contract for
April 2009 delivery <0#JPL:> rallied to 6,703 yen per gram, but
still below a record of 7,427 yen hit on March 6.
Gold <XAU=> hit a one-week high of $889.80 an ounce and was
last at $886.50/887.50, against $881.40/882.60 late in New York
on Thursday.
In the physical market, steady purcha
