Platinum On The Rise: Global Precious Metals Price Index Gets A March Bump

Johannesburg-SA (Mar 9)  The World Platinum Investment Council's bullishness on platinum as a key investment and industrial asset, which we reported on last fall in an interview with the Council's Director of Research Trevor Raymond, seems to be bearing fruit as we approach the end of Q1.

Platinum bar prices and a couple other precious price points led MetalMiner's Global Precious Metals MMI to rise 2.4% for March 2017, landing at a value of 84.

Global Precious MMI 

Indeed, the U.S. platinum bar price, up by nearly 3% this month, has been on an upward trajectory for the past three months, starting the month out above the $1,000 per ounce level for the first time since October 2016.

A Focus on Platinum

Worries over supply shortages of the namesake of platinum group metals (PGMs) are still behind the investment opportunities that the WPIC foresees - so much so that the Council is pushing new initiatives on two separate global fronts.

Although holdings of platinum-backed exchange-traded funds (ETFs) fell to their lowest since mid-2013 last October, Reuters reported that WPIC "plans to launch an ETF in China, the world's biggest consumer of the precious metal, and a coin-based fund in Europe in 2017," according to an executive of the council.

"We are working on two deals in China for investment products. (An) ETF and retail platinum bars with a big state-run enterprise," Marcus Grubb, director of market development at WPIC, told Reuters. The ETF itself was formed by leading platinum producers to develop investor demand for the metal, according to the news service.

Grubb told Reuters that India's platinum jewelry sales are rising by 25-30% a year. The PGM's star has been rising on the subcontinent, with some questioning whether it will overtake gold as the go-to in jewelry demand in India (which is the world's second-biggest gold consumer, so not likely anytime soon... but still).

Source: SeekingAlpha