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London gold price

finishes firmer but off high

LONDON: Gold bullion prices finished off their highest levels on Thursday after a speculator-driven rally in silver ran out of steam, dealers said.

"Gold is content to cue off silver," a dealer said.

Bullion reached a peak of $384.40 per ounce before speculators took their profits from both silver and gold to close London business in gold at $383.55, up $0.55.

Silver finished unchanged at $5.61, while platinum was $4.75 firmer at $431.00 and palladium ended $0.75 stronger at $150.25.

"There is not a lot going on. Silver has been more active recently but that was also quiet today," one trader said.

Precious metals prices gave only a muted response to the German Bundesbank's half-point interest rate cut.

A firmer opening in New York helped take silver to its high of the day at around $5.78 but that did not last for long.

"The feeling was that silver had had its couple of days of correction after rising quickly and it was ready to go again but the temptation to take a quick profit was too much," one dealer said.

There was not much silver around to meet dealers' commitments and the risk of heavy selling emerging to take prices much lower was very slight, dealers said.

Platinum also perked up with silver and saw buying from the trade and customers, one dealer said.

The possibility of supplies being disrupted by an industrial dispute at Impala Platinum's Springs refinery in South Africa had also encouraged buying, the dealer said.

"When the market gets lively, things like the Impala strike become significant. Yesterday when it was flat, nobody took any notice," he said.

So far the strike has not affected production, according to an Impala spokesman.-Reuter