Whilst the gold and silver prices remain stable and at relatively high levels, the prices of palladium and rhodium continue to soar.

Palladium, once seen as the cheaper alternative to gold in many applications, is now at £55/gram which is a good 50% higher in price than the yellow metal.

Rhodium however is flying even higher. At £260/gram it is seven times the price of gold and is at a level that makes for tricky trading condition – buying at this level is very risky as the metal has almost doubled in less than 3 months and the long lee time for refining could mean a dramatic fall by the time results come through.

The demand for the two metals is related to their increased use in catalytic convertors for hybrid cars. Sadly this has also lead to the increased theft of such catalytic convertors.