Singapore: Gold slipped slightly on Monday due to a stronger dollar but held above $1,300 an ounce as its safe-haven appeal was burnished by heightened tensions between the West and Russia, and violence in the Middle East.
Fundamentals
Spot gold dipped 0.2 per cent to $1,305.45 an ounce, largely holding the previous session's 1.1 per cent gain. The metal logged its second consecutive weekly drop on Friday on strong U.S. economic data.
Fighting subsided in Gaza on Sunday after Hamas Islamist militants said they backed a 24-hour humanitarian truce but there was no sign of any comprehensive deal to end fighting with Israel. Fierce clashes between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian rebels continued on Sunday as Europe and the United States prepared economic sanctions on Russia over the conflict.
In a measure of investor sentiment, hedge funds and money managers boosted their bullish bets on gold futures and options as the yellow metal's price rose last week, while slashing net-long positions in silver , the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said on Friday.
Russia and Turkey lifted their gold holdings in June as both countries increased their bullion reserves for a third consecutive month, data from the International Monetary Fund showed on Friday. Silver bullion banks Deutsche Bank, Bank of Nova Scotia and HSBC have been accused of manipulating prices in the multi-billion dollar market in a lawsuit filed on Friday.
The company operating the gold price 'fix' has appointed a supervisory committee to oversee the century-old system of benchmarking gold prices ahead of the implementation of stricter regulations, its website showed on Friday.
