Tokyo platinum adds losses but solid bids emerge

Tokyo platinum futures extended losses on Wednesday as the yen's strength against the dollar again induced active profit-taking, but solid bids emerged after the key contract hit a near two-week low below 3,000 yen per gram.
The key platinum contract for February delivery at one point dropped to 2,988 yen, which was down nearly four percent from a 16-1/2-year high of 3,108 yen hit last Thursday.
The key contract fell below the 3,000-yen level for the first time since March 5.
"The yen's renewed strength has been clearly hurting sentiment, but the falls have been limited by pretty strong bargain hunting, providing solid support at 3,000 yen," said Kaname Gokon, manager at Okato Shoji's research section.
The February platinum contract on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM) closed down 19 yen at 3,013 yen.
Other contracts closed down seven to 42 yen.
"TOCOM platinum tends to be directly impacted by falls in dollar/yen," Gokon said.
"It's still not clear enough to determine a trend, but falls below 2,900 yen could greatly reverse underlying bullishness, although there is still some way to go."
The dollar has come under renewed selling pressure against the yen since a Nikkei Financial Daily report this week suggesting an end to Japan's policy of massive currency market intervention was near.
Some metal traders said they were closely following comments from Japanese forex officials.
Japan's top financial diplomat, Zembei Mizoguchi, said on Wednesday that the country's currency policy had not changed, adding that excess currency volatility was undesirable.
But former top finance official Eisuke Sakakibara told Reuters on Wednesday that Japan was looking for ways to exit its policy of massive currency intervention.
The dollar struggled at a fresh three-week low of 108.20/25 yen at 0650 GMT, also down nearly four percent from this year's high of around 112.30 yen hit on March 8.
TOCOM gold futures edged down, but losses were limited as dollar-denominated spot gold held above $400 per ounce, traders said.
The February gold futures contract closed down nine yen at 1,403 yen.
Other contracts dropped eight to 12 yen.
Spot gold was quoted at $402.75/403.50 an ounce compared with $402.00/402.80 last quoted in New York.
Key palladium futures inched up on the lingering belief the metal will attract strong demand as a replacement for soaring platinum.
The key contract rose three yen to 992 yen. Other months were unchanged to down 15 yen.
Below are closing prices for TOCOM's most active precious metals contracts, with the day's turnover for each metal.