Gold powers to record $976

London: Gold set an historic high above $975 on Friday, propelled by speculative buying on the back of record high oil and a lifetime low dollar against the euro.

Silver jumped to a 27-year peak near $20 an ounce, palladium surged nearly four per cent to its highest in more than six years and platinum rebounded from lows to hover near a lifetime high.

Gold set a record for the third straight day, hitting $975.90 an ounce before falling to $971.10/971.85 at 1609 GMT, versus $968.90/969.70 in New York late on Thursday. It has risen 16 per cent this year on the top of a 32 per cent rise in 2007.

"It looks very likely that we will go above $1,000," Michael Lewis, global head of commodities research at Deutsche Bank said in London.

"The next focus is the degree of Fed easing at the next FOMC meeting on March 18. So that would be another possibility that we would start to see dollar weakness accelerating," he said, referring to the US Federal Open Market Committee.

"While gold's movements over the past 24 hours have pushed the metal back into overbought territory, its does appear that the scale of demand is sufficient to propel gold to $1,000 an ounce," said James Moore, analyst at TheBullionDesk.com.

While oil is at a record price in inflation-adjusted as well nominal terms, gold has been lagging. According to analysts at metals consultancy GFMS Ltd, gold's inflation-adjusted record high is more than $2,000 an ounce at current prices.

In other metals, silver rose to $19.92 an ounce and was last at $19.69/$19.74, versus $19.74/$19.79 in New York. Platinum rose to a high of $2,161 an ounce and was last at $2,153/$2,163.

Oil prices charted fresh record territory yesterday, rising to $103.05 before profit-taking trimmed gains.

US crude was down 25 cents at $102.34 a barrel by 1602 GMT after hitting a record $103.05 earlier in the session. London Brent crude dropped 33 cents to $100.57, off its record high of $101.27.

The latest jump followed the shutdown of an oil pipeline in Ecuador and a fire at a fire at Royal Dutch Shell's Bacton gas terminal in Norfolk, England.