Precious metal platinum dived to its lowest in more than nine weeks on Monday in Europe as the market ignored comments from the world's biggest producer saying that strike action was affecting output, dealers said.
Spot platinum had tumbled to $817.00/822.00 per ounce by 1421 GMT - its lowest since July 30 - from $858.00/862.00 in New York late on Friday.
The world's biggest platinum producer Angloplat said on Monday that strike action had started to hit output, but that only 30-40 percent of the workforce was taking part.
Workers launched work stoppages late last week at Anglo American Platinum and second-ranking Implats, which together account for around two-thirds of global output of the precious metal.
"I think people agree that there is no shortage of physical metal in the short term. The strike actions need to last for a longer time until there are consequences," a European dealer said.
Although prices were starting to stabilise from their drop, dealers and analysts put the next support level at $800.
Gold also fell as the market's resolve was tested after the dollar fought higher against the euro, dulling the metal's appeal to non-US investors. Spot gold was quoted at $411.95/412.70 per troy ounce, against $418.85/419.60 late in New York on Friday. The euro was at $1.2281.
Palladium followed platinum down to $213.00/218.00 from $218.50/223.50 previously, while silver lost ground on the back of gold's falls to $6.69/6.72 from 6.89/6.92.
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