By Clara Denina
LONDON (Reuters) - Gold fell for a second session in a row on Tuesday as fears that Britain could vote to leave the European Union in Thursday's referendum receded.
Two opinion polls on Monday showed the "Remain" camp had recovered some ground in the referendum debate though a third poll found those wanting to leave were ahead by a whisker.
Spot gold fell 0.8 percent to $1,280.31 an ounce by 0946 GMT while U.S. gold fell 0.7 percent to $1,283.40.
"There are not many major economic releases this week and gold is going to lack fresh impetus ahead of the UK referendum," Macquarie analyst Matthew Turner said.
"If anything, wider markets seem to be too confident in a 'remain' victory (which) could clear the way for the Federal Reserve to raise rates sooner rather than later ... a negative outcome for gold," Turner said, adding that a vote to leave would instead strengthen the dollar and limit any gold rally.
Gold touched a near-two year high at $1,315.55 last week due to uncertainty around the outcome of the UK referendum and after a cautious note from the Federal Reserve on interest rates.
The market will watch Fed Chair Janet Yellen's testimony before the Senate Banking Committee later on Tuesday for any clues on the timing of the next interest rate rise.
Gold is highly sensitive to rising interest rates, which lift the opportunity cost of holding the precious metal.
European shares steadied, while the British pound set a three-week high against the dollar.
In other news, the United Kingdom was the main destination for Swiss gold exports for a third straight month in May, data from the Swiss customs bureau showed on Tuesday, as investment in bullion-backed funds based in Britain continued.
Holdings in SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, rose 0.10 percent to 908.77 tonnes on Monday, the highest since September 2013
"We think that gold is under short-term volatility, but longer-term factors driving the gold demand are still intact," said Richard Xu, fund manager of China's top gold exchange-traded fund (ETF) HuaAn Gold.
"We think that gold could be a very good buying opportunity if it pulls back a little bit," Xu said.
Among other precious metals, silver fell 0.7 percent to $17.38 an ounce, platinum was down 0.1 percent at $982.37 an ounce and palladium was unchanged at $546 an ounce.
(Additional reporting by Vijaykumar Vedala in Bengaluru; editing by David Clarke)
