Gold fell in Asia as a 12% rally in the past month enticed some investors to sell the precious metal before the year-end. Silver also declined.
Bullion posted its biggest one-month advance since July 16, 2006, as investors bought the precious metal as an alternative asset. The dollar slumped 8.1% against the euro in the same period. The currency traded at 1.3716 per euro as of 9:52 a.m. in Hong Kong after falling to $US1.3727, the weakest level since Oct. 14.
''There’s a bit of profit-taking this morning but overall gold is holding up pretty well and is looking to be the best- performing metal of the year,'' Jonathan Barratt, managing director of Commodity Broking Services, said from Sydney today.
Bullion for immediate delivery fell 0.4% to $US834.79 an ounce at 9:53 a.m. in Hong Kong, compared with $US838.45 in New York late yesterday. Silver for immediate delivery was down 0.6% at $US10.6175 an ounce.
Platinum gained 0.2% to $US833.50 an ounce.
Gold may climb if $US830 proved to be a strong support level, said Commodity Broking’s Barratt. Support levels are where buy orders cluster on charts that traders watch.
Switzerland’s Zuercher Kantonalbank said gold assets in its exchange-traded funds rose to 3.082 million ounces last week, from 3.034 million ounces the previous week. Platinum holdings increased to 114,820 ounces, from 108,448 ounces.
''Volatility remains high for gold as the market nears the end of the year,'' Hussein Allidina, an analyst at New York-based Morgan Stanley, said in a report today. ''We expect gold to perform well in 2009, while silver will remain contained by weak industrial demand.''
February-delivery gold fell 0.1% to $US835.50 an ounce in after-hours electronic trading on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Gold for October delivery in Tokyo gained 0.7% to 2,428 yen a gram ($US833 an ounce).
