Hong Kong (Platts)--19Dec2007
The spot price of gold in Hong Kong opened slightly lower on Thursday at
$800.50-801.00/oz, down from Wednesday's close of $802.60-803.10/oz.
Local traders said gold prices in Asia continued to move within a tight
range in quiet trade ahead of the Christmas and New Year holidays. "The spot
price in New York closed at around $802/oz on Wednesday, slightly down from
the day's high of around $804-805/oz. The US dollar rose against the euro and
this prompted more fund selling activity," a local trader said, adding that
gold prices in Hong Kong mainly followed the price trend in New York.
The trader anticipated that prices would stay within a range of
$790-815/oz in the near term. "There are only one or two more working days
left ahead of the long holiday...and more fund players had earlier closed
their books and are now getting ready for next year," he said. "I don't think
there will be any major price moves on gold for the rest of this year due to a
lack of fund trading activity."
Another trader agreed that gold prices were likely to remain little
changed in lean trade ahead of the holiday season while fund players would
continue to watch the US dollar moves for market direction.
Meanwhile, most gold futures contracts on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange
fell marginally Thursday morning. The most actively traded far-forward
December 2008 standard gold contract opened Thursday at Yen 2,950 ($26.05)/g,
and closed the morning session lower at Yen 2,940/g. Wednesday's closing level
was Yen 2,945/g.
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