By Pham-Duy Nguyen Dec. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Gold rose as a decline in the dollar boosted the appeal of the precious metal as an alternative investment. Silver also gained. The dollar dropped as much as 1.2 percent against a weighted basket of six major currencies following a 3 percent gain in the previous two sessions. Gold is up 1.2 percent this year, heading for an eighth straight annual gain. “Gold’s trading off the dollar,” said Frank Lesh, a trader at FuturePath Trading LLC in Chicago. “A weak economy and all-time low interest rates don’t call for a strong dollar.” Gold futures for February delivery rose $10.90, or 1.3 percent, to $848.30 an ounce at 9:04 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange’s Comex division. Silver futures for March delivery rose 8 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $10.93 an ounce. Investment in the SPDR Gold Trust, the biggest exchange- traded fund backed by bullion, rose to a record 775.3 metric tons last week. The Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate to zero to 0.25 percent from 1 percent on Dec. 16 to revive the economy. To contact the reporter on this story: Pham-Duy Nguyen in Seattle at pnguyen@bloomberg.net.

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