Gold near one-month high

Gold was near a one-month high on Thursday, helped by rising oil prices and the escalating Turkish-Kurdish conflict, while platinum drifted down but kept close to a record high on robust demand and supply concerns.
Volume was thin as many traders were away or keeping their positions light due to year-end holidays, but precious metals were well-supported with keen to maintain their buy positions due to their positive market outlook. "It's true that gold only jumped in the thin market condition, but there are plenty of factors to support gold, such as high oil prices and strong demand for gold ETFs (exchange-traded funds)," said Hiroyuki Kikukawa, an analyst at IDO Securities in Tokyo.
"This uptrend could continue beyond the New Year, with technical improving after yesterday's jump." Tokyo traders said there was a rumour of big fund inflows into gold ETFs emerged after US investors returned from their Christmas holiday.
Spot gold was trading at $823.60/824.40 an ounce, slightly up from $823.00/824.30 late in New York trade on Wednesday when it rose as high as around $826.10 the highest level since November 27.
Platinum fell from an all-time high but underlying sentiment was bullish due to lingering concerns over potential supply tightness. "There are very few sellers now, which is keeping lease rates high and keeping the spot price strong," said a trader at a Japanese trading house.
"Traders who have closed their positions before Christmas have return to the market. They are taking new positions in markets that are showing strong buy signals and platinum is one of them." Platinum eased to $1,530/1,535 an ounce from a record high of $1,539/1,540 in New York on Wednesday.
Japanese precious metals futures rose sharply, with the benchmark December 2008 platinum contract on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange hitting a record high of 5,425 yen per gram.
It closed the session at 5,390 yen as profit taking kicked in ahead of the holiday. Key TOCOM gold futures jumped 42 yen or 1.4 percent to a session high of 3,056 yen per gram the highest for any benchmark since November 9 before finishing the trade at 3,049 yen.
Comex gold futures fell in Asian trade after rising in New York on Wednesday. The most active February contract was trading down $1.20 or 0.1 percent at $828.30 from the New York settlement. Bullish oil prices and growing geopolitical tensions spurred buying in gold.
On Wednesday, US crude futures rose sharply, lifted by another Turkish raid on northern Iraq and expectations that weekly oil inventory data will show supplies fell last week. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, February crude rose $1.84 or 1.95 percent to settle at $95.97 a barrel. Palladium rose to $363/368 an ounce from $360/364 in New York, while silver inched down to $14.65/14.70 per ounce from $14.67/14.72 an ounce.