RTRS: Gold inches up, aided by platinum's recent gains
By Risa Maeda
TOKYO (Reuters) - Gold inched up on Tuesday, retaining some of the recent momentum that saw it rise more than 2 percent the previous day, as the dollar extended recent declines and buying interest at or below $1,100 per ounce remained strong.
Spot gold was at $1,122.75 an ounce as of 0629 GMT, up 0.2 percent from New York's notional close of $1,121.00.
It earlier reached a peak of $1,123.40 an ounce, its highest since December 17, after rising decisively above $1,100 on the first trading day of 2010 on Monday, when an oil price rally and a decline in the greenback spurred heavy fund buying.
Shuji Sugata, research team manager at Mitsubishi Corp Futures Ltd, said a rally in platinum this week added to the yellow metal's strength.
Spot platinum stayed well above $1,500 per ounce after it jumped to a 16-month peak of $1,523 on Monday.
"Growing hopes for an economic recovery in the U.S. are boosting prices of industrial commodities, such as oil and platinum, and the strength of platinum has been supporting gold recently," Sugata said.
Previously, gold was bought as a safe-haven asset due to the low visibility of the U.S. economy. But this factor has been fading, and platinum is helping lift gold, he said.
U.S. gold futures for February delivery traded at $1,123.50 an ounce, up 0.5 percent from the previous close.
In the currency market, the euro rose 0.3 percent from late U.S. trade at $1.4450 after advancing 0.6 percent the previous day. The dollar index, a gauge of the U.S. currency's performance against six other major currencies, was down 0.4 percent.
The world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust, said its holdings fell 4.877 tonnes or 0.4 percent to 1,128.745 tonnes on Monday, the first fall since December 8.
Among other precious metals, spot palladium rose to $422 per ounce, hitting its highest since July 2008 for the fourth straight trading day.
Platinum group metals prices have benefitted from hopes for an economic recovery in 2010 and expectations that platinum and palladium-backed exchange traded products will shortly be launched in the United States.
ETF Securities said in a U.S. regulatory filing on Monday that a financial firm, which is also its lead market maker, has bought shares of its proposed first-ever U.S. platinum exchange-traded fund.
