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Platinum hit a 17-month high before paring gains on Wednesday, buoyed by the recent launch of exchange-traded funds backed by the metal, while gold inched down due to pressure from a firmer dollar.

Spot platinum rose as high as $1 654 (R12 240) per ounce, a level last seen in August 2008. It was at $1 643.50 at 08:19 SA time, compared with New York’s notional close of $1 643.

A US subsidiary of London’s ETF Securities launched platinum and palladium exchange-traded funds earlier this month, and both metals have been climbing since then.

The metal, which like palladium is also valued for its industrial use in autocatalysts, is expected by some market participants to head higher.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch on Tuesday raised its 2010 platinum forecast to $1 750 an ounce from $1 440 an ounce, on the launch of the new funds and an improving auto sector.

“Platinum still has room to go up to $1 680 and technically, we will see some sort of resistance there,” said a dealer in Hong Kong.

Its sister metal palladium paused but continued to trade near 18-month highs marked this week.

It was at $459.25 per ounce, down from $464 in New York.

Underlining optimism over commodities demand, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund, said on Wednesday that the world economy is recovering more strongly than expected and the projected growth rate for 2010 is likely to beat the 3 percent previously forecast.

Kazuhiko Saito, chief analyst at Fujitomi Co Ltd, said hopes that Chinese gross domestic product data due out on January 21 would show strong growth were helping to support the market.

Strong economic growth would help spur use of platinum and palladium due to their industrial applications.

“It’s difficult to sell in a market under these conditions,” Saito said.

Gold prices jumped earlier this month on fund buying driven by stronger-than-expected Chinese import data.

But investors have shown some caution over demand from China, where the central bank started to clamp down on excessive liquidity in markets by raising banks’ reserve requirement ratios and short-term debt yields over the past two weeks.

On Wednesday, official media and banking sources said Chinese authorities had instructed some banks to restrict their lending during the rest of January, helping send China’s key stock index down more than 2 percent.

Spot gold was at $1 133.10 per ounce, down 0.4 percent from $1 137.95 in New York.

US gold futures for February delivery were at $1 133.10, down 0.6 percent from the settlement in New York.

The world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust, said its holdings stood at 1 111.922 tonnes as of January 19, down 0.08 percent from the previous business day. Business Report