Gold soars as China launches Shanghai Futures Exchange

Seven contracts started trading on Wednesday, with the benchmark price set at 209.99 yuan (US$28.8) per gram by the Shanghai Futures Exchange a day earlier, Xinhua news agency said.

The key contract for June delivery was the first to climb, rising 9.98 percent to 230.95 yuan per gram, followed by 10 percent surges of the other contracts for delivery between July and December, it said.

Most future contracts for the metal finished in the 223 yuan to 227 yuan range.

Gold prices struck a record high in Asian trade Wednesday, opening in Hong Kong at US$887.10-887.60 an ounce, or about US$31.67 a gram, up from Tuesday’s close of US$863.20-863.70.

The Shanghai Futures Exchange announced in late December that China’s gold futures exchange would formally open on Jan. 9, much earlier than market expectations of later in 2008.

China is the third largest gold producer in the world, and the country’s gold consumption in the manufacturing sector was about 9.2 percent of the world’s total, Xinhua said according to government figures.

China produced a record 240 tons of gold in 2006, up 7.15 percent year-on-year. In the first nine months of 2007, China produced 191.456 tons of gold, up 13.1 percent from the same period a year earlier.

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