Gold hit an 11-month high on Friday and platinum rose to its highest in five months, buoyed by a weaker dollar and hopes that proposed exchange-traded funds would boost demand for precious metals. A rebound in Chinese stock markets also helped the bullion market, as it eased concerns that a possible hike in interest rates could hit demand in China.
Gold rose as high as $693.60 an ounce and was quoted at $691.50/692.00 an ounce by 3:08 pm EDT (1908 GMT), sharply higher than $681.70/682.20 late in New York on Thursday. "I think that the prospect of more ETFs has supported the entire precious metals complex," said James Steel, analyst at HSBC.
The euro hit a two-year high against the dollar, coming within half a cent of a lifetime peak, but had largely erased its gains by afternoon in New York. "Gold is still keeping an upward pattern and a weaker dollar is a very supportive feature," said Jon Bergtheil, global metals strategist at J.P. Morgan, adding a rally in platinum also was helping gold.
But some traders remained cautions because of the condition of the Chinese stock market. Commodities prices tumbled in late February after a plunge in Chinese equities triggered a heavy sell-off in global shares. Chinese stocks rose sharply on Friday after tumbling 4.52 percent on Thursday in response to high inflation data, which further fuelled expectations of an early interest rate hike.
HSBC's Steel said that the market overreacted on Thursday to the fears that a possible rate hike in China would measurably slow the world demand for commodities, and that this notion had retreated on Friday. "The metal (gold) remains at the moment in an uptrend, but a healthy level of cautiousness that prevents the market from overheating for the time being prevails at the same time, making it difficult to pass the $700-mark with flying colours," said Wolfgang Wrzesniok-Rossbach of Germany's Heraeus.
PLATINUM, PALLADIUM RALLY: Platinum gained upward momentum after breaking through $1,300 as speculators were keen to take new positions after recent plans to launch platinum ETFs. Spot price rose as high as $1,330 an ounce and was last quoted at $1,328/1,332, against its previous finish of $1,295/1,299 in New York on Thursday. It reached a record high of $1,395 in November.
London-based ETF Securities said it will launch physically backed ETFs based on platinum, palladium, gold and silver on the London Stock Exchange. This followed Zurich Cantonal Bank's earlier announcement that it planned to launch ETFs in platinum, palladium and silver by May 10.
Carlos Perez-Santalla at Hudson River Futures said precious metals gained because the ETF markets remained very firm and bullish on prices. "It seems that the new ETF that was announced yesterday in London is expected to be very successful, taking more metals off the market," Perez-Santalla said. ETFs allow investors to gain exposure to commodity markets without worrying about setting up futures trading accounts or taking physical delivery. Sponsors of such funds buy a matching amount of the commodity from the market to keep in bank vaults.
Gold ETFs have accumulated more than 650 tonnes of gold so far, while silver funds have about 4,200 tonnes. Palladium rose to $382/387 from $375.50/379.50 an ounce at its previous close in New York, while silver rose to $13.92/13.97 an ounce from $13.65/13.69 late in the US market on Thursday.
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