Gold and platinum holdings hit record high at ETF Securities

Tag : metal gold

ETF Securities says that its gold and platinum holdings have risento record highs, and palladium holdings rose by 11%, over the lastweek. Posted: Monday , 30 Jun 2008

LONDON (Reuters) -
ETF Securities said on Monday its holdings of gold and platinumrose to record highs in the week to June 29, while its palladiumholdings increased 11 percent. The fund, which issuesexchange-traded securities backed by stocks of precious metals,said the amount of metal held for its physical gold ETF rose to a record 1.266 million ounces by June 29,against 1.194 million ounces the previous week.
Holdings for its physical platinum ETF climbed 8percent to 394,000 ounces in the same period, up from 365,000ounces in the week to June 22.
Its physical palladium ETF grew by 11 percent to232,000 ounces from 208,000 ounces a week before, its highest sinceMarch 12, the fund said.
Holdings in its physical silver ETF were unchangedat 9.4 million ounces.
ETF Securities head of sales Hector McNeil said the securities wereseeing good buying interest from a range of investors, includingequity funds, emerging markets funds and metals and mining funds.
"What we are seeing with the precious metals are both structuralmarket influences such as dollar weakness, and interest (in themetals) as a proxy for emerging market investments," he said.
While gold is still taking support largely from external factorssuch as dollar weakness and fears over rising inflation, platinumand palladium are also being boosted by strong underlyingfundamentals, he said.
"We are still seeing electricity problems in South Africa, whiledemand is still strong," he said.
(Reporting by Jan Harvey; editing by Peter Blackburn)
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