Tokyo gold futures hovered narrowly on Tuesday in the absence of fresh incentives to provide direction after prices opened lower due to a decline in the New York market.
Gold trading on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange has been choppy since the benchmark contract rose to an 18-year high of 2,242 yen per gram on February 6, when firm bullion prices spurred fund buying.
The benchmark February gold contract on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange finished up two yen per gram at 2,106 yen, after moving between 2,094 yen and 2,113 yen.
Other months rose or fell by the same margin of one to six yen. "There just wasn't enough material to trade, and most players limited their activity today to position adjustment," a Tokyo analyst said.
Total gold turnover on TOCOM was estimated at modest 61,366 lots, down from Monday's 90,212 lots.
The analyst said that with trade range-bound the market had the potential to move in either direction.
He expects trade to be cautious until a clearer picture emerges of whether the Bank of Japan may shortly end its super-easy policy and eventually raise rates from near zero.
That view has been a key factor behind the yen's rally to a one-month high against the dollar this week.
It rose to 115.68 yen per dollar on electronic trading platform EBS on Monday, but has since weakened.
The dollar was fetching 116.15/116.17 yen, against 116.10 yen in late New York trade. Bullion prices rose, providing some support for TOCOM gold. Spot gold was fetching $555.30/$556.00 an ounce at TOCOM's closing bell, compared with $554.70/$555.50 last quoted in New York.
Gold futures in New York fell on Monday on speculative selling amid a slide in oil prices and a crude-driven rally in precious metals late last week.
The slightly softer yen helped lift platinum prices, which rose across the board.
Benchmark February platinum futures closed up nine yen at 3,909 yen. Spot platinum was at $1,035/$1,040, compared to New York levels of $1,032/$1,036 an ounce.
Comments
Comments are closed.