But underpinning the weight of speculative demand, meantime, expect to see a small but growing chunk of private savings moving cash into silver.

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The London-based World Gold Council released its third quarter report on gold demand Wednesday, and it reveals that the yellow metal is not at historical peaks on investor speculative demand alone.

FORBES: Non-Speculative Gold Demand Will Increase in 2010

JPMorgan said in a research report that they expect the government to maintain property tightening measures for the rest of the year to prevent house prices from bouncing back and clamp down on speculative demand in the housing market.

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"As long as the housing shortage persists, we have no alternative but to restrict external demand and curb speculative activities, " he said.

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In these hot spots, new construction is largely speculative, rather than to meet certain demand.

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The central bank, which has kept interest rates high to offset lax fiscal policy, is in a policy bind: even higher rates might attract a destabilising amount of speculative capital, while lower rates would fuel domestic demand and imports, pushing the current-account deficit higher.

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Wizner says it comes down to how much organic demand these cities are left with when the speculative overpricing is stripped away.

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In the meantime, a physical-platinum trader said whereas the metal has been hurt by speculative trading on the basis of worries about future auto demand, actual industrial demand so far has been somewhat resilient.

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Edel Tully, precious metals strategist at UBS, said while speculative buying and ETF inflows have supported gold to current levels, she is watching physical demand, which generally has been lagging with gold prices near records in most emerging market currencies.

FORBES: METALS OUTLOOK: Softer Tone For Gold Could Continue