China's gold futures prices mostly edged up on Friday on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, after hitting a record low a day earlier, following suit with the recent slump in the world gold market.

The key contract for June delivery closed the day at 197.32 yuan (about 28.19 U.S. dollars) per gram, up 3.57 yuan from the day-earlier low of 193.75 yuan since the January debut.

However, the closing price was 11.6 percent lower than 223.3 yuan set on its debut upon closing.

Contracts for July-to-January delivery also reported rise ranging from 2 yuan to 3.56 yuan during Friday's trading, while contracts for February and April delivery dropped 10.5 yuan and 1.44 yuan, respectively.

Gold futures for June delivery on the New York Merchantile Exchange closed at 882.1 U.S. dollars on Thursday, up 10.9 U.S. dollars, or 1.3 percent, from the previous closing as the U.S. dollar slipped.

Gold prices was pushed to a record high of 1,033.9 U.S. dollars on March 17 as a result of the weakened U.S. currency and downward adjustments of global stock markets. But prices fell afterwards on varied factors, mainly on a rebound in the dollar since March.

The international gold price reported a nine-percent drop in April, the biggest monthly decrease in the past four years. Thursday's price was almost 15 percent lower than the peak price scored in March.

China's gold futures products have largely copied the changing pattern of the world gold futures prices over the past months since the debut.

The shivering gold prices dragged down China's gold-related stocks. Share prices of Shandong Gold and Zhongjin Gold dived nearly 30 percent and more than 30 percent respectively upon Friday's closing compared with their performances on March 17, while the country's benchmark stock index went down 4.27 percent in the same period.

Prices for spot trading were also affected. In South China's Guangzhou city, the gold stores of Lao Fengxiang and Zhou Dafu, well-known gold retailers in China, lowered their prices from 278 yuan per gram to the current 268 yuan before the May holiday.

The global oil price, however, has repeatedly broken record highs recently, although it usually shared the same changing pattern with the gold price. Crude price topped 124.61 U.S. dollars a barrel on Thursday.

"Unlike the case with gold, the performance of the U.S. dollar is not the major drive behind the oil price surge," said Yao Daming, department director of Guangdong Oil & Gas Association.

Yao said there were multiple reasons leading to soaring oil prices, such as regional conflicts in major oil-producing areas and the coming summer which would drive the U.S. oil consumption to a peak.

Opinions are split among experts as to the trend in gold prices. Chen Xue, an analyst with China's COFCO Futures, predicted that the gold price would go in the same direction as the oil price in the long run. She called the recent dip in gold prices as a "healthy and technical adjustment".

The UBS analysts expected the gold price to top 1,000 U.S. dollars again in the future, while JP Morgan said it would keep slipping down to 770 U.S. dollars at the lowest.

(Xinhua News Agency May 10, 2008)