Platinum Futures Drop as Rallies in Rubber, Coffee Lure Traders

Tag : rubber with metal

June 24 (Bloomberg) -- Platinum futures in Tokyo fell for a fourthday, the longest losing streak in more than three months, asrallies in rubber, coffee and other commodities lured traders awayfrom precious metals.
Platinum has dropped 0.7 percent this week in Tokyo, compared witha 2.6 percent gain for the most active rubber futures and a 4.9percent jump for arabica coffee. The metal today closed 6.1 percentbelow the record 7,427 yen a gram set March 6.
``At these levels, there is not much buying interest from thepublic or from funds,'' Nobito Kaneda, a trader at Tokyo- basedSojitz Corp. said today by phone. The volume of trade in futuresfor the metal and gold has been declining, he said.
Platinum for April delivery in Tokyo dropped 19 yen, or 0.3percent, to 6,972 yen a gram ($2,009 an ounce) on the TokyoCommodity Exchange. The most-active contract last week gained 2.2percent.
A total 15,227 contracts were traded today, compared with thefull-day average of 27,912 for the past 120 days.
Metal for immediate delivery gained $5.90 to $2,045 an ounce at5:42 p.m. in Tokyo, a 0.3 percent advance from late yesterday inNew York.
Rubber for November delivery jumped 0.4 percent to 346.2 yen akilogram ($3,208 a metric ton). Arabica coffee for May climbed 1.2percent to 26,160 yen a bag.
To contact the reporter for this story: Dave McCombs in Tokyo at dmccombs@bloomberg.net . Last Updated: June 24, 2008 04:58 EDT