SINGAPORE, Sep 24 Gold firmed on Monday as the dollar held near a record low against the
SINGAPORE, Sep 24 (Reuters) Gold firmed on Monday as the dollar held near a record low against the euro but gains could be limited because of the absence of Japanese players.
-- Spot gold rose to $733.50/734.20 an ounce from $731.60/732.40 late in New York. Gold rallied to a 28-year high of $739 on Friday on technical buying and short covering amid inflation fears and a falling dollar.
-- Investec Australia pegged support at $728 an ounce and resistance at $740 an ounce.
-- Japanese financial markets are closed on Monday for a public holiday, the day following Autumn Equinox. The benchmark August 2008 gold futures on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange ended 27 yen per gram higher at 2,746 yen on Friday.
-- The most-active December gold contract on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange rose $2.4 to $741.3 an ounce on electronic trade, after hitting another 28-year high at $747.1 an ounce on Friday.
-- The dollar held near a 15-year low against a basket of currencies on Monday and a record low versus the euro as the single currency's strength sparked worries and bickering among European officials.
-- Dealers are keeping a close eye on whether the dollar breaks the all-time low of 78.19 <.dxy> hit on its trade-weighted index in 1992, a development that could ignite a further sell-off in the currency.
-- The euro was little changed at $1.4090 , having climbed as far as $1.4121 on electronic trading platform EBS late last week -- its highest since the single European currency's launch in 1999.
-- The dollar fell to 115.26 yen but has rebounded from a low of 113.98 yen last week.
-- Platinum rose to $1,328/1,333 an ounce from $1,326.80/1,333.80 late in New York.
-- Palladium rose to $337/342 an ounce from $335/339 late in New York.
-- Silver inched up to $13.52/13.57 an ounce from $13.48/13.53 an ounce.
Precious metals prices at 0106 GMT Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Turnover Spot Gold 733.50 2.70 +0.37 15.38 Spot Silver 13.53 0.03 +0.22 5.29 Spot Platinum 1328.00 1.20 +0.09 17.31 Spot Palladium 337.00 2.00 +0.60 1.51 TOCOM Gold 2746.00 27.00 +0.99 12.31 78175 TOCOM Platinum 4933.00 67.00 +1.38 15.96 42967 TOCOM Silver 504.80 15.80 +3.23 2.33 2796 TOCOM Palladium 1282.00 20.00 +1.58 2.15 739 Euro/Dollar 1.4096 Dollar/Yen 115.12 TOCOM prices in yen per gram, except TOCOM silver which is priced in yen per 10 grams. Spot prices in $ per ounce.
REUTERS AK PM0705