First Platinum Exchange-Traded Fund Planned

News about a proposed platinum exchange-traded fund (ETF) pushed the price of the precious metal to a five-month high at $1,286.5 an ounce on Monday amid speculation that the ETF may lead to a shortage in a tight market, according to reports.

The Zurich Cantonal Bank (ZKB) said in a statement that it was planning to list exchange-traded funds (ETF) for platinum, palladium and silver on the SWX Swiss Exchange by May 10th.

“News of the ETF is the driving force behind platinum today, the market is quite firm on the back of the news,” said Jonathan Barratt, managing director of Commodity Broking Services in Sydney.

“However, an ETF could aggressively impact supply, causing sharp price rises, particularly in platinum. This may be good for the short to intermediate timeframe, but could dampen platinum longer term (after a big run-up) as users switch to palladium,” Peter Grandich, a market analyst, told ResourceInvestor.com.