Gold, little changed, may climb for a third day, on increased investment and physical demand as a rebound in the dollar stalled. Palladium extended gains. Immediate-delivery gold traded 83 cents lower at $1,339.02 an ounce at 3:04 p.m. in Seoul after earlier gaining as much as 0.3 percent to $1,343.75. Bullion, which touched a record $1,387.35 an ounce on Oct. 14, fell 2.9 percent last week, the biggest weekly drop since July. December-delivery gold was little changed at $1,339.10 an ounce on the Comex in New York. “There’s a very good physical demand around,” said Yuichi Ikemizu, head of commodity trading at Standard Bank Plc in Tokyo. “The first thing is the dollar, but the other thing is physical demand that we saw around $1,330.” The Dollar Index, a gauge of the U.S. currency against a basket of six counterparts, was unchanged after earlier climbing as much as 0.3 percent. The greenback dropped 0.5 percent yesterday. Gold typically moves inversely to the dollar. UBS AG said daily gold sales to India, the world’s largest buyer, were the third-highest this year on Oct. 22. That day, gold for immediate delivery dropped to $1,315.45 an ounce, the lowest price since Oct. 5. “Physical demand at the levels we saw on Friday is usually an indicator that gold’s price trough is very near,” Edel Tully, an analyst at UBS in London, wrote in a report yesterday. At prices near $1,350 an ounce, demand “should remain healthy” before the Diwali festival next month, Tully wrote. Indian Imports Imports of gold by India may be more than 40 metric tons this month after last week’s drop in prices spurred buying, Suresh Hundia, president of the Bombay Bullion Association, said by phone from Mumbai yesterday. Imports in October last year were 36.2 tons, according to the association. Gold has gained 22 percent this year, outperforming equities, Treasuries and most industrial metals, as central banks maintain low interest rates and governments spend trillions of dollars to sustain growth. Spot palladium gained as much as 0.9 percent to $615.33 an ounce, the highest price since June 2001. The metal, used in jewelry and pollution-control devices in cars, has jumped about 51 percent this year, outpacing gold and other precious metals. Large trucks in the U.S. must cut emissions by as much as 20 percent by 2018, under the first standards planned for work vehicles, President Barack Obama’s administration said yesterday. Platinum and palladium “may be additionally supported” by the proposal, Mark Pervan and Natalie Robertson, Melbourne-based analysts at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd., wrote in a report today. Platinum, also used in auto catalysts, gained as much as 0.5 percent to $1,706 an ounce, the highest price since Oct. 15, before trading at $1,698.10. Silver for immediate delivery dropped 0.4 percent to $23.565 an ounce. The metal has gained about 40 percent this year, reaching $24.92 an ounce on Oct. 14, the highest level in 30 years. To contact the reporter on this story: Sungwoo Park in Seoul at spark47@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Poole at jpoole4@bloomberg.net

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