Tokyo Commodity Exchange Price Limits And Order Restrictions On Gold Futures

Taking into consideration of the recent price volatility of gold, and in order to make the market in line with price movements in overseas markets, and to make it easier for customers to withdraw from the market, the Precious Metals Market Management Committee held on December 15, 2005 decided to take following measures:

1. Price Limit on Gold Futures Contract

Pursuant to Article 2 “Daily Price Fluctuation (Price Limit)” of the Regulations Governing Management of Precious Metals Market, on and after December 16, 2005, the price limits imposed on gold futures will be set as described in the table below for the time being, notwithstanding the provision of Item (2) “Expansion of Daily Price Fluctuation Limits” of Article 2 of the same regulation.

Contract Month	Price Limit
December 2005	-
February 2006        April 2006	JPY 75
June 2006   August 2006   October 2006	JPY 100

Lifting of this measure will be determined taking into consideration of the price movements, etc., and will be notified as soon as the decision is made.

2. Order Restrictions on Gold Futures Market

With regard to the SELLING ORDERS for GOLD for the hours from 8:30 to 9:10 on December 16, 2005, ONLY “OFFSETTING ORDERS FROM GENERAL CUSTOMERS” will be accepted. “Proprietary selling orders”, “Selling orders from member customers”, and “New selling orders from general customers” will be accepted from 9:10.

No restriction will be imposed on buying orders.