Gold has gained 10 per cent this year as the slumping dollar and surging cost of raw materials enhanced demand for the precious metal as an alternative asset and store of value. Bullion for immediate delivery, which fell 2.3 per cent on April 18, gained $3.60, or 0.4 per cent, to $920.75 an ounce at 3:01 pm in Singapore, after earlier rising to $923.04. Silver fell 0.3 per cent to $17.8175 an ounce. |
"I think it was a bit overdone on the downside on Friday and gold has attracted some buying interest on Monday as both the euro and oil recover," K C Wong, trader at Standard Bank Asia, said on Monday.
"Gold's just holding steady at the moment around the $900-$950 trading range," said Peter McGuire, managing director at Commodity Warrants Australia in Sydney. "It's a hard one to pick at the moment."
"In the longer term, certainly gold should be a lot higher than where it is at the moment but we're very conscious that it seems to be range-bound," said McGuire.
Crude oil for May delivery rose as much as 36 cents, or 0.3 per cent, to $117.05 a barrel, the highest since futures in New York started in 1983, in after-hours electronic trading. The contract traded at $116.57 at 3:09 pm in Singapore.
The dollar traded at $1.5833 against the euro at 3:10 pm in Singapore from $1.5817 April 18, when it rose the most in more than two weeks amid speculation that financial firms including Citigroup Inc. will weather credit market losses.
Gold for June delivery gained 1 per cent to $923.90 an ounce in after-hours electronic trading on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange at 3:11 pm Singapore time.
Gold for February 2009 delivery fell 1.2 per cent to 3,094 yen a gram ($927 an ounce) at 3:12 pm Singapore time on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange. Gold for June delivery on the Shanghai Futures Exchange settled 2.3 per cent lower at 205.22 yuan a gram ($912 an ounce) at the same time.
