Gold rose in Asia on Thursday due to a weaker dollar while palladium extended gains, hitting its highest level in a year on renewed buying from investors.
Spot palladium rose as high as $225.50 an ounce before easing to $224/229 in afternoon trade, up from $223/226 last quoted in New York on Wednesday.
Some dealers were bullish on palladium on the prospect of more demand in China and Japan, where many jewellers have ditched pricey sister metal platinum in favour of palladium.
"If you look at the charts, there's not much in the way of resistance level that's going to really stop it from going higher," said one dealer in Singapore.
"But perhaps, $231 might provide some resistance," said the dealer, referring to levels last seen in October 2004. Platinum rose to $941.00/946 an ounce from $940/944 in New York and off a 25-1/2-year high of $943 hit two weeks ago.
Dealers said jewellery makers in China, the world's largest consumer of platinum jewellery, have been hit by poor margins, forcing them to turn to palladium and white gold an alloy of gold and other light-coloured metals such as silver and palladium.
In gold, a weaker dollar lifted prices but the metal could find resistance at around $475, said dealers. The physical sector was mostly quiet as jewellery manufacturers stayed on the sidelines. "We see some selling on the upside.
It's pretty much quiet," said Beh His Wah, a dealer at United Overseas Bank in Singapore, a centre for bullion trading in Southeast Asia. Premiums for gold bars hardly changed at between 20 and 40 US cents an ounce to the spot London price, said dealers.
Spot gold rose to $473.25/474.00 from $470.30/471.00 an ounce last quoted in New York. "My broad range for the next month or so is $460 to $480.
Today, we are probably going to reach a high of $474," said the dealer in Singapore. "There was not a lot of volume going through but the market gets some support from a firmer euro," he said.
The euro was at $1.2127, up from around $1.2070 in late US deals. Silver rose to $7.83/7.85 an ounce from $7.77/7.80 in the US market. On Hong Kong's Chinese Gold and Silver Exchange, gold rose to HK$4,368 per teal (37.5 gram ingot) from HK$4,355.
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