London 30/03/2012 - The second quarter of the year is seasonally the strongest period and will be supportive for world manufacturing and hence commodity demand, UK bank RBS said on Friday.
"The [recent] price wash-out plays well for consumer raw material purchases, so we expect to see commodity price support," analyst Nick Moore said in a report.
Commodity markets most recently failed to emulate the strong price performance of January-February because slowing China GDP fears, a still-strong oil price and the dragging anchor of the eurozone debt turmoil sapped enthusiasm.
“Prices of all the base and precious metals fell in March... Brent oil was supported by the ongoing Iran sabre-rattling," RBS said.
But the lower gold price - it is currently trading either side of $1,660 per ounce, down from $1,720 at the start of the month - has provided an opportunity for investors to accumulate metal. One example has been buying of physically backed ETFs, which have risen to a fresh record of 2,473 tonnes.
The platinum/gold discount narrowed to a five-month low of less than $13 per ounce - platinum has proved more resilient than gold.
“Platinum is less sensitive to QE, particularly in an improving economic environment, being primarily an industrial metal used in autocatalysts,” RBS added.
(Editing by Martin Hayes)
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