By Glenys Sim Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Platinum jumped to a 14-month high and palladium surged to the highest in 15 months in Asia as the dollar’s decline boosted demand for precious metals as alternative investments. Both metals also climbed after China’s passenger-car sales rose 76 percent last month as a $586 billion stimulus package and record bank lending helped boost auto demand. China will remain the world’s largest automobile market for “some time to come,” Nissan Motor Co. Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn said today at a forum in Shanghai. “Catalytic converters, economic growth, all these sorts of good fundamental stories should help these secondary precious metals,” Jonathan Barratt, managing director at Commodity Broking Services Pty in Sydney, said in a Bloomberg Television interview today. “As we are climbing out of this recession, it will be those metals that will be well sought after.” Platinum for immediate delivery rose as much as 0.9 percent to $1,382.25 an ounce, the highest price since Sept. 8, 2008, and traded at $1,380.25 at 12:15 p.m. in Singapore. Immediate- delivery palladium gained 1.5 percent to $349.25 an ounce, the highest since Aug. 8, 2008. “We expect platinum to outperform gold thanks to rising demand from the auto industry,” Tobias Merath, head of commodity research at Credit Suisse Group AG in Zurich, said in a report yesterday. Platinum has gained 48 percent this year, compared with bullion’s 27 percent rise, as the dollar tumbled 7.8 percent against a basket of six major currencies. Gold for immediate delivery advanced as much as 0.4 percent to a record $1,122 an ounce today before trading at $1,119.55 an ounce at 12:53 p.m. in Singapore. To contact the reporter on this story: Glenys Sim in Singapore at gsim4@bloomberg.net

Source