January 29, 2006	Sunday	Zilhaj 28, 1426

NEW YORK, Jan 28: Silver futures rallied to another 19-year high on Friday, then stumbled to end unchanged despite enthusiasm about a proposed silver-backed financial product aimed at making it easy to invest in the metal.

Pre-weekend profit taking ended a four-day winning streak at the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Silver led New York precious metals higher this week after taking the baton from gold which hit 26-year highs last week.

But by Friday the complex looked tired, except for platinum, which continued to another 25-year record.

COMEX March silver closed at $9.605, the same price as Thursday. It peaked at $9.80 off a low of 9.555 in ACCESS screen trade overnight. That added to Thursday’s 9.5 cent surge and put prices at their loftiest since April 1987.

Estimated volume was 25,000 contracts, less than Thursday’s official 31,060.

The market is buzzing about Barclays Global Investors’ plan to launch iShares Silver Trust, which on Wednesday appeared to move closer to approval after the US Securities and Exchange Commission issued a filing about its potential listing on the American Stock Exchange.

Each share would be worth 10 ounces of silver. The secu-rity would require the pur-chase of silver bullion to guarantee it.

The initial move (up) was a technical one. But right now it’s basically being driven by Barclays, said a trader at a precious metals refining company. There are still people out there with some positions and of course there will be some profit taking.

Spot silver closed at $9.56/59, still up from Thursday’s late New York price at $9.55/58 an ounce. London bullion dealers fixed Friday’s spot reference price at $9.69.

Benchmark February gold went down $1.10 to $558.80 an ounce after trading between $564.50 and $555.60.

Commodity commentator James Quinn at A.G. Edwards said the approach of the Chinese New Year usually comes with a lull in Asian physical demand for gold.—Reuters