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Asia gold little changed in choppy afternoon trade

HONG KONG: Asian spot gold was little changed in choppy two-way trading on Wednesday and was likely to remain rangebound in the short term, dealers said.

Gold bullion was quoted at US$300.00/301.50 per ounce late on Wednesday compared to New York's previous close at US$298.00/300.00 on Tuesday.

"The market has been choppy with two-way interest. I think gold will still be in a US$290-305 range," a trader said.

Gold rose in the morning to near US$305 after buying by Australian dealers who were reacting to news from Barrick Gold that it would not increase its hedging.

But later the market pushed gold down after concluding this was not new from Barrick, which had said on Monday that it had been reducing its hedge book but was not abandoning hedging.

In addition, Japanese investors sold gold as the dollar strengthened against the yen in the morning, traders said.

"People are hoping US$298 will hold, but I think we may test lower," a trader said.

After hitting a high of US$319 on Monday, gold was retreating at least temporarily, and the market was of two minds after major North American gold miners outlined differing strategies on hedging.

Other miners like Placer Dome and AngloGold have said they would halt or scale back their hedging, which would increase the metal's availability. They also said their decisions reflected an improved outlook for gold's price.

The fundamental picture for gold has improved in the past week because of the statements by producers, another trader said.

"Overall there have been some positive statements in the last few days and we have gone up," he said. However, gold may fall in a retracement before moving higher again, he added.

Meanwhile, platinum group metals sprinted to record highs in Asia amid a scarcity of supplies from Russia.

Spot palladium was quoted at US$585.00/595.00 an ounce and platinum was quoted at US$565.00/575.00.

Spot silver was quoted at US$5.29/32 an ounce after closing in New York at US$5.26/29 on Tuesday.

Local tael gold was quoted HK$26 down at HK$2,781.

The carry over charge at the Chinese Gold and Silver Exchange Society was -4, unchanged from its previous fix.-Reuters