Gold prices briefly rise above $660 level

In metals markets on Thursday gold topped the $660 per troy ounce level after trying several times during the week and after falling as low as $648.40 per troy ounce earlier in the day. Late in the session, the price fell back slightly, but remained 1.2 percent higher to $659.15 per troy ounce. Some analysts said that the market could well be ready to approach last July’s price of $675 per troy ounce. Elsewhere in precious metals, platinum dropped 0.5 percent to $1,190 per troy ounce on the threat of a strike in South Africa.

Base metals prices were mixed. Copper was down slightly to $5,415 per tonne despite another decline, this time of 25 tonnes, in London Metal Exchange inventories. Nickel was also lower, dropping 0.4 percent to $35,750 per tonne after LME stockpiles gained 534 tonnes. Zinc dropped 0.9 percent to $3,140 per tonne. Aluminium was 1.2 percent higher to $2,687.5 per tonne, while tin added 2.5 percent to $12,150 per tonne.