May 18, 2006	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 19, 1427

LONDON, May 17: Gold rode the rollercoaster on Wednesday, moving in a wide $30 range on jitters over the dollar, while platinum touched a new all-time high before settling much lower.

Gold jumped nearly four per cent at one stage on a drop in the dollar, but a rebound by the US currency prompted many bullion investors to take profits, erasing most of the metal’s gains.

But dealers saw further price spikes in the near term on positive market sentiment.

We see a trend higher, but with consolidation on the way, a precious metals dealer in London said.

You can’t rule out new highs. I think $722 and $730 are probably going to provide resistance on the way up and volatility is going to be a key feature in the short term.

Spot gold rose as high as $716.00 an ounce before easing to $694.50/695.50 by 1441 GMT, against $689.90/690.90 in New York late on Tuesday, when it had risen more than $7. It had fallen to $685.80 during Asian trade.

At its 26-year peak of $730 on Friday, gold was up 41 per cent from the start of this year and 75 per cent from a year earlier. But prices fell more than seven per cent the next day when the metal tumbled in a broad sell-off.

The upward trend is going to continue. The correction on Monday again attracted good buying interest and proved to be short-lived, said Yingxi Yu, precious metals analyst at Barclays Capital.

I still think gold is vulnerable short-term to further bouts of profit taking and may look to spend more time treading water around $685-$715 before resuming its upwards march towards its all-time high of $850, James Moore of TheBullionDesk.com said in a daily market report.

In other precious metals, platinum rose to a record high of $1,336 an ounce before slipping to $1,315/1,325, against $1,295/1,303 in New York.

Precious metal refiner Johnson Matthey said in a closely watched report on Monday that platinum demand was expected to outpace supply in 2006.

Palladium was quoted at $370/376 an ounce, versus $369/374, while silver fell to $13.41/13.51 an ounce from $13.59/13.69.—Reuters