Wire: BLOOMBERG News (BN) Date: Nov 25 2009 8:47:16
Gold Rises to Record on Dollar Drop, Report India May Buy More
By Nicholas Larkin and Glenys Sim
Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Gold climbed to a record in New York
and London on a further drop by the dollar and on a report that
India may buy more bullion for its central-bank reserves.
Gold futures have rallied 12 percent since India said on
Nov. 3 it bought 200 metric tons of metal from the International
Monetary Fund. The country, the worldâs largest gold consumer,
is open to additional purchases from the IMF, the Financial
Chronicle newspaper reported. The U.S. Dollar Index fell for a
third day, sliding to the lowest level in more than 15 months.
âCentral-bank buying has been one of the main factors of
this recent rally,â Peter Fertig, owner of Quantitative
Commodity Research Ltd. in Hainburg, Germany, said today by
phone. âThe weaker dollar is driving commodities higher.â
Bullion futures for February delivery on the New York
Mercantile Exchangeâs Comex division climbed as much as $17.30,
or 1.5 percent, to $1,184.70 an ounce. They traded at $1,181.70
by 8:40 a.m. local time. Up for a ninth day, futures are set for
the longest stretch of gains since August 1982.
Gold for immediate delivery added 1 percent to $1,180.63 an
ounce in London after earlier reaching $1,182.95. Prices may
advance to $1,200 next week, according to Fertig.
The metal rose to a record $1,176.50 an ounce in the
morning âfixingâ in London from $1,163.25 at yesterdayâs
afternoon fixing. Some mining companies use fixings to sell
production. Spot prices are up 34 percent this year.
Overtaking Russia
A further purchase by India would make its stockpile the
worldâs eighth-largest, overtaking the Netherlands and Russia,
according to figures from the producer-funded World Gold
Council. Reserve Bank of India Governor Duvvuri Subbarao
declined to comment on the report.
âActions from central banks are very important at the
moment,â said Eugen Weinberg, an analyst at Commerzbank AG.
âThe purchase from India was like a seal of prices above $1,000
an ounce. Also, other central banks are buying gold.â
The central banks of Russia and Sri Lanka have acquired
gold, prompting analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch,
Societe Generale and Barclays Capital to forecast more such
purchases. Governments are the biggest bullion holders.
Mauritius bought 2 tons of gold from the IMF last month for
$71.7 million after Indiaâs $6.7 billion purchase.
The IMF, which set out two months ago to dispose of one-
eighth of its gold reserves, still has more than 200 tons to
sell. It will do so on a âfirst-come, first-servedâ basis,
Andrew Tweedie, head of the fundâs finance department, said in a
Nov. 20 interview.
Central-Bank Demand
âThe additional stimulus for gold is the increased demand
emerging from central banks, who are now keen to diversify away
from the falling value of dollar reserves,â said Mark Pervan, a
commodity strategist with ANZ Banking Group Ltd. in Sydney.
Bullion typically moves inversely to the U.S. currency. The
dollar index, a six-currency gauge of the greenbackâs value,
slid as much as 0.9 percent today after Federal Reserve
officials refrained from voicing concern over this yearâs 8.4
percent decline.
Assets held by the SPDR Gold Trust, the biggest exchange-
traded fund backed by bullion, expanded for a second day
yesterday to 1,122.37 tons, the most since June 29. The fundâs
holdings reached a record 1,134 tons on June 1. Gold held in ETF
Securities Ltd.âs exchange-traded products fell 0.5 percent to
7.936 million ounces yesterday, its Web site showed.
âSpeculators betting on higher prices have a very good
argument on their side,â Weinberg said in a Bloomberg
Television interview. âItâs the weak dollar, the possibility of
longer-term inflation, and also actions from central banks. Itâs
definitely investment demand that is pushing prices higher.â
Scrap Sales
The rally has pushed the 14-day relative strength index for
futures above the level of 70 viewed by some investors and
analysts who follow technical charts as a sign that prices may
soon fall. Todayâs reading was 85.05.
âTechnically, gold remains overbought,â Walter de Wet, a
London-based Standard Bank Ltd. analyst, wrote today in a
report. âWe have seen some scrap metal coming to the market at
current levels, but still not enough to offset buying.â
Silver for March delivery in New York gained 1.4 percent to
$18.755 an ounce. Platinum for January delivery climbed 2.7
percent to $1,482 an ounce, the highest price in more than 14
months. Palladium for March delivery rose 1.7 percent to $377 an
ounce.
ETF Securitiesâ silver holdings rose 0.7 percent to a
record 22.861 million ounces yesterday, its Web site showed.
Platinum assets added 164 ounces to a record 426,639 ounces,
while palladium holdings climbed 1.4 percent to an all-time high
of 624,859 ounces.
For Related News and Information:
Top commodity reports: CTOP <GO>
Top metal and mining stories: METT <GO>
Central bank gold reserves: WGO <GO>
Collector-coin prices: CCEX <GO>
Commodity arbitrage calculator: CARC <GO>
--With assistance from Patricia Lui in Singapore and Kim
Kyoungwha in Seoul. Editors: Dan Weeks, James Ludden.
To contact the reporters on this story:
Glenys Sim in Singapore at +65-6311-2466 or
gsim4@bloomberg.net;
Nicholas Larkin in London at +44-20-7673-2069 or
nlarkin1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Stuart Wallace at +44-20-7673-2388 or
swallace6@bloomberg.net
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