Tokyo platinum futures rallied to a fresh record high on Friday as fund buying steadily emerged on price dips amid prospects that a healthy global economy would keep demand strong. Speculative buying appeared ahead of a closely watched interim report by London-based precious metals refiner Johnson Matthew next week, lifting key October Tokyo Commodity Exchange platinum to a new record high of 3,598 yen per gram.
"Funds are still keenly flocking into platinum. This trend should stay for a while," said Takashi Ogura, manager at Kanetsu Asset Management. October TOCOM platinum closed up 18 yen, or 0.5 percent, at 3,596 yen.
It had fallen to a session low of 3,564 yen, but active bargain hunting emerged at that level.
Other contracts closed up 13 to 21 yen. The benchmark contract has climbed about 4 percent since the start of the week. It picked up momentum on Wednesday especially after breaking the previous record of 3,520 yen, marked in September 1986.
"At the moment, platinum is setting the trend for other precious metals, but it's important to see how platinum will move after Johnson Matthew's report," Ogura said. TOCOM gold futures took a breather following rallies in the past few days, with the key contract having gained about 2 percent this week through on Thursday.
Falls in the dollar-based spot price, which was hurt by a strong US currency and cheaper oil, weighed on TOCOM prices. The October TOCOM gold contract closed unchanged at 1,774 yen per gram.
It had moved in a range of 1,769 to 1,777. Other contracts closed down two yen to up one yen. Spot gold was trading at $465.70/$466.50, down from the late US level of $466.70/$467.50.
The dollar hit a two-year high against the euro on Friday. The euro was trading around $1.1700 after tumbling as low as $1.1670, it's weakest since November 2003, on electronic trading platform EBS.
Gold found little support from news of a halt to operations at the 1 million ounces-a-year Porgera gold mine in Papua New Guinea, given surplus supplies of the metal.
The Porgera mine, one of the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, has been idle since on Sunday, when vandals brought down an electricity pylon that cannot be replaced until local weather improves.