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London gold hits fresh six-month lows

LONDON: Gold fixed at a fresh six-month lows in Europe on Tuesday, dragged down by a mild sell-off in silver, dealers said. London gold fixed $279.60 a troy ounce in the afternoon, down on the morning's $280.05 and marking a fresh low since last Setpember, when gold was fighting back from a 19-year low $270.00.

Dealers said sold dropped below $280.00 in sympathy with silver, which reversed Monday's challenge of $5.15 resistance to fall towards support near $5.00.

Gold was last at $279.20/$279.70, down 70 cents on New York's Monday close, while silver held at $5.02/$5.05, down nine cents on its US close.

"Gold's just ambling along, the main thing that gave it a push on the downside was silver losing 10 cents," said one London dealer.

"There's some support between $278.00 and $279.50 but it's not major support, and there's very little in the way of upside momentum," said another dealer. "People are looking at both gold and silver and neither is doing very well," she added.

Easter holidays, coupled with gold conferences in North America, meant many of the usual market participants were absent, albeit having left the odd buy or sell order booked in at $10 or $15 from the current spot price, the dealer said.

Platinum group metals were also softer, giving back the gains they made when NATO attacks on Yugoslavia began last week and dealers linked Russia's condemnation of the action to possible supply disruptions from the world's major exporter.

"The Russians saying they were not going to deliver anything when they hadn't delivered anything for months.... what difference does it make?" said one London dealer.

Official Russian supplies have been delayed so far in 1999, the third year in a row of supply disruptions that have tripled palladium prices from $120 a troy ounce.

Spot platinum was last $3.00 down at $357.00/$359.00 while palladium was at $358.00/$363.00, down $4.00 versus its Monday New York close.ÑReuter