(Updates with closing in Tokyo)
By Lewa Pardomuan
SINGAPORE, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Platinum tumbled 3 percent on
Wednesday, led by selling in Japan ahead of new margin rules in
Tokyo, and as investors booked profits after pushing up the
price to a 14th straight record high the previous day.
Spot platinum <XPT=> hit a low of $2,075 an ounce, down
from $2,140/2,150 late in New York on Tuesday, when it rallied
to $2,160 on speculative buying driven by fears of tight
supplies after power shortages disrupted mining in South
Africa.
Sister metal palladium briefly hit a 6-1/2-year high, while
gold surrendered early gains as crude oil slipped after hitting
a record high above $100 a barrel on Tuesday.
"People are nervous because platinum prices have risen too
rapidly," said Yukuji Sonoda, precious metals analyst at
Daiichi Commodities in Tokyo.
"This is only temporary. The South African problem is quite
unchanged. It tends to get worse day by day," said Sonoda, who
pegged support at $2,000 an ounce.
Platinum has gained more than 30 percent in 2008 after
mines in South Africa, which account for four-fifths of the
world's supply, ground to a halt for five days at the height of
last month's power crisis.
The benchmark contract for December 2008 delivery <0#JPL:>
on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange ended 175 yen per gram lower at
6,965 an ounce. It briefly hit a new record of 7,207 yen before
tumbling to a low of 6,901 yen.
TOCOM will raise margins by 50,000 yen per contract for all
new positions and existing positions for all six platinum
futures contracts from Thursday until the end of the month to
cope with rising volatility.
"The market has been surging and psychological pressure was
already growing as platinum has been overbought. TOCOM's margin
increase from tomorrow became a good reason to prompt
corrective sales in Tokyo," Shuji Sugata, manager at Mitsubishi
Corp Futures and Securities Ltd, said.
"But we have to remember that fundamentals stay unchanged
with the situation in South Africa unclear, so there will be
plenty of buyers willing to buy on dips," Sugata said.
Last week, South African electricity utility Eskom
[] invited tenders for power generating plants that can
be operating by June 2012 as the company struggled to deal with
chronic power shortages which have crippled the country's
mining sector.
Palladium <XPD=> hit a bid high of $495 an ounce but then
dropped to $479/484 an ounce, down from $491.00/494.00 late in
New York.
Gold <XAU=> fell to $925.60/926.40 an ounce from
$927.00/927.80 an ounce late in New York. Silver <XAG=> edged
up to $17.47/17.52 an ounce from $17.36/17.41 an ounce.
Oil <CLc1> eased on Wednesday after surging nearly 5
percent to a record above $100 a barrel a day ago amid an
influx of fresh investor capital into the commodities sector
and concerns that OPEC will not hike output next month.
Precious metals prices at 0835 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg
Turnover
Spot Gold 923.10 -4.50 -0.49 10.86
Spot Silver 17.46 -0.06 -0.34 18.21
Spot Platinum 2092.00 -48.00 -2.24 37.63
Spot Palladium 479.00 -12.00 -2.44 30.16
TOCOM Gold 3222.00 42.00 +1.32 5.29
119305
TOCOM Platinum 6965.00 -175.00 -2.45 30.46
81144
TOCOM Silver 609.80 8.00 +1.33 12.72
2144
TOCOM Palladium 1694.00 8.00 +0.47 25.39
26079
Euro/Dollar 1.4712
Dollar/Yen 107.52
TOCOM prices in yen per gram, except TOCOM silver which is
priced in yen per 10 grams. Spot prices in $ per ounce.
(Additional reporting by Chikafumi Hodo in Tokyo; Editing by
Ben Tan)
