Saturday, August 16th, 2025
Home »Agriculture and Allied » World » Tokyo gold up to highest since December, trend strong

  • News Desk
  • Feb 19th, 2005
  • Comments Off on Tokyo gold up to highest since December, trend strong
Tokyo gold futures rallied to their highest level since late December on Friday after the dollar- denominated spot price notched up solid gains, with brighter technical prospects drawing fresh purchases from fund operators. The benchmark December gold futures contract on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange hit a fresh 1-1/2-month high of 1,452 yen per gram, with the market keen to test the contract towards its 100-day moving average of 1,457 yen.

"On the charts, it's more likely that we will see gold climb towards the 1,460-1,480 yen-range in the long run, although we've seen some profit-taking around highs today," said Kaman Gokon, research section manager at Okato Shoji Co Ltd.

December TOCOM gold futures closed eight-yen or 0.55 percent higher at 1,450 yen per gram. Other contracts closed up eight to 10 yen.

Bullish spot gold and Comex prices supported TOCOM futures, traders said.

Gold was quoted at $427.30/7.80 per ounce, against the late US level of $427.10/7.80.

Traders said the technical trend for spot gold brightened even more after hitting a three-week high of $428.20 in New York on Thursday.

Funds have been reshuffling part of their portfolios after closely watched congressional testimony by Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan this week offered few surprises.

Precious metals prices had advanced as the dollar posted losses of a half a cent versus the euro over Greenspan's two days of testimony, despite his hints that US interest rates would continue to go up, which is seen as dollar-positive.

The euro was quoted at $1.3074/78, little changed from late New York levels.

It traded around $1.2730 just a week ago. Investors also were keen to rebuild positions in gold due to increasing tensions between the United States and nations including Iran, Syria and North Korea.

"A lot of attention is on the dollar to find a direction for gold, but gold looks supported with a solid floor seen around 1,430 yen as there is plenty of interest in buying gold for safe-haven purposes," Gokon said. TOCOM silver hit a fresh two-month high, boosted by strong gains made in New York the previous day. Speculative funds continued to flood into the grey metal, having seen the dollar-based spot silver price gain more than 12 percent in just a week, traders said.

December TOCOM silver futures ended 3.8 yen higher at 247.6 yen per 10 grams the highest since December 8. Other contracts closed up 3.1 to 5.0 yen. Platinum and palladium also rose in line with other precious metals, although activity was thin.

TOCOM platinum closed up nine yen at 2,838 yen. Other contracts closed up five to 21 yen.

Below are closing prices for TOCOM's most active precious metals contracts, with the day's turnover for each metal.

Copyright Reuters, 2005


the author

Top
Close
Close