Gold rose to a two-week high on Thursday and platinum group metals rallied to their highest in over twenty months on the back of fresh investment money poured into commodities, signaling another quarter of gains. A shutdown this week of a smelter at the world's third biggest platinum producer Lonmin, has also buoyed platinum to its highest since August 2008. Gold saw little support from the currency markets, where the euro was steady versus the dollar. The US currency hit a three-month high against the yen while the market waited for US macroeconomic data later in the day. Spot gold rose to $1,118.75 an ounce, its highest since March 19 and was at $1,117.65 an ounce by 0901 GMT, versus $1,112.80 an ounce late in New York on Wednesday. “Commodities as a group are extremely strong at the moment,” said RBS metals analyst Stephen Briggs. “We had lots of quarter-end massaging going on and that has set us up for probably more money coming into commodities at the beginning of the second quarter,” he said. Bullion ended the first quarter more than one percent higher on buying driven by volatile currencies, firm stock markets and oil.
