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London gold

ends higher

LONDON: Gold fixed at its highest price of the week on Friday as the market attracted some fresh interest after teetering on the brink of a slide since Tuesday.

Gold was fixed at $384.35 per ounce, continuing the rally which took it to $384 on Thursday afternoon.

Silver was steady at $5.21 up four cents, platinum at $424 was $0.75 higher and palladium was unchanged at $152.50.

"What a difference a week makes...the market looked to be going down below $380 on Tuesday but rallied back after finding support and robust physical interest," one European dealer said.

But gold has to overcome producer selling between $384 and $385 to spark further gains.

"If the market can absorb the selling and hold steady, the bigger the chances of breaking above $385," a dealer said.

But $386 was likely to be the top for now, dealers and analysts said. Some doubted it could go that high.

"I still think the market is likely to go down rather than up. The only reason it held (above $381.50 this week) was the absence of aggressive selling to push it lower," said metals specialst Ted Arnold at Merrill Lynch Investment Research.

Business was fairly thin as the firmer dollar against the yen and mark had dealers awaiting the currency markets' reaction to U.S. July employment data.

Silver was at the top of its recent $5.00-$5.20 range, riding on the back of gold's firmer tone, dealers said.

"I would expect to see selling around $5.22/$5.23. But if the market manages to overcome that, I see little reason why it cannot run up to around the $5.40s next week," one dealer said.

Platinum was steady and quiet after, like gold, surviving downside pressure. "The $425.00 has been a stiff upside barrier all week...I see little reason for this to change," a dealer said.-Reuter