Singapore: Gold climbed on Friday on safe-haven demand, escalating geopolitical tensions and pushing down global equity markets.

Fundamentals

Spot gold rose 0.2 per cent to $1,319.74 an ounce, after gaining 1.5 per cent in the previous session. However, the metal is still down 1.4 per cent for the week, breaking a six-week winning streak, as fears of financial troubles in a Portugal bank faded and as investors worry about a sooner-than-expected hike in US interest rates.

A Malaysian airliner was brought down in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, killing nearly 300 people aboard and sharply raising the stakes in a conflict between Kiev and pro-Moscow rebels that has set Russia and the West at daggers drawn.

As the United States said the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was "blown out of the sky", probably by a ground-launched missile, Ukraine and Russia traded accusations of blame, cranking up global pressure for a way out of a bloody local conflict that risks fueling a new Cold War.In other industry news, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) said on Thursday it would be happy to administer, with Thomson Reuters, the global price benchmark for gold known as the "fix."

SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, said its holdings fell 2.69 tonnes to 803.34 tonnes on Thursday.