Platinum bullish near record, gold below $900

TOKYO, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Platinum held near a record on
Thursday as concerns over supply problems in South Africa
attracted strong demand from investors, with the strength in
Tokyo platinum futures providing additional support.

-- Spot gold <XAU=> slipped below $900 an ounce, but it
stayed near the psychological level after strongly rebounding
the previous day.

-- By 0105 GMT, gold was trading at $897.75/899.25 an
ounce, down from $900.40/901.10 late in New York on Wednesday,
when it rose as high as $907.20.

-- Platinum was at $1,811/1,821 an ounce, little changed
from Wednesday's level of $1,810/1,815 and not far away from a
record high of $1,819 reached the previous day.

-- The white precious metal has been drawing huge fund
inflows due to concerns over supplies.

-- South Africa's government appealed to mining companies
for help in cutting power consumption on Tuesday to ease a
power crisis caused by the failure of electricity generation to
match economic growth. [ID:nL05318543]

-- The distant December platinum contract on the Tokyo
Commodity Exchange <0#JPL:> rose more than 1 percent to as high
as 5,938 yen a gram, matching a record high reached on Tuesday.

-- Palladium <XPD=> edged up to $418/423 an ounce from
$416/421 on Wednesday. It had reached a six-year high of
$426.50 on Tuesday.

-- COMEX gold futures edged down to in Asia after rising
1.7 percent in New York on Wednesday. The April contract GCJ8
was trading down $1.5 or 0.2 percent at $903.5 from the New
York settlement.
Precious metals prices at 0104 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg
Turnover
Spot Gold 897.75 -2.65 -0.29 41.22
Spot Silver 16.48 -0.03 -0.18 28.25
Spot Platinum 1811.00 1.00 +0.06 59.98
Spot Palladium 418.00 2.00 +0.48 25.90
TOCOM Gold 3099.00 42.00 +1.37 26.75
17302
TOCOM Platinum 5927.00 96.00 +1.65 39.33
12346
TOCOM Silver 567.60 8.00 +1.43 15.06
260
TOCOM Palladium 1458.00 24.00 +1.67 16.18
634
Euro/Dollar 1.4626
Dollar/Yen 106.37
(Reporting by Chikafumi Hodo; Editing by Jan Dahinten)