By Glenys Sim March 9 (Bloomberg) -- Platinum dropped as some investors sold the metal to lock in gains after it climbed to a six-week high, and the dollar gained. Gold was little changed. Platinum for immediate delivery gained to $1,610.50 an ounce yesterday, the highest price since Jan. 21, on optimism demand for the metal used in auto catalysts will increase as the global economic recovery gathers pace. It dropped as much as 0.9 percent to $1,602 an ounce today and traded at $1,588.25 at 10:15 a.m. Singapore time. “We remain positive on both platinum and palladium prices, based on tighter market fundamentals,” said HSBC Securities analyst James Steel. “Strong investor demand complemented worries that power-related problems and growing demand from the auto industry would tighten underlying supply/demand balance.” Platinum has risen 50 percent since March 9 last year, when global equities slumped to their lowest level since Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for bankruptcy in September 2008, as physical and investment demand increased. Holdings of the metal by ETF Securities reached a record 707,662.1 ounces last month after the ETFS Platinum Trust and ETFS Palladium Trust were launched on the NYSE Arca stock exchange in January. Deutsche Bank AG said yesterday it plans to start physically backed platinum, palladium, gold and silver exchange-traded products in the next three months. Platinum and palladium are seeing “very high speculative activity,” which should keep both metals “very volatile,” Standard Bank’s analyst Walter de Wet said in an e-mail. “ETF holdings continue to tighten up the market.” Palladium fell as much as 1.2 percent to $467.13 an ounce, before trading at $467.75, as the dollar’s rebound against a basket of six currencies weighed on price gains. The metal rose to a two-year high of $480 an ounce yesterday. Gold and silver for immediate delivery were little changed at $1,123.55 an ounce and $17.2175 an ounce respectively. Gold fell 1 percent yesterday to $1,123.55 an ounce, the steepest drop since Feb. 17. --Editors: Matthew Oakley, Jake Lloyd-Smith. To contact the reporter on this story: Glenys Sim in Singapore at gsim4@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Poole at jpoole4@Bloomberg.net Related Articles

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