Gold rose this afternoon, driven by a demand from bargain hunters, which started buying the bullion after a three day losing streak, and an increase in China’s imports of the yellow metal.
Data showed today that Hong Kong shipped more than 75 tonnes of gold to mainland China in May. According to Bloomberg News, this is six times the amount of gold imported by China a year earlier.
Yellow metal fell sharply on Friday after the Department of Labor reported that the US eoncomyc created only 80,000 jobs last month, while the unemployment rate held steady at 8.2 percent.
The data undershot expectations, boosting the safe-haven US dollar, which has an inverse relationship with gold. Today, the greenback pulled back with the US dollar Index dropping 0.2 percent.
Friday’s drop took gold’s losing streak to three sessions and pushed it below US$1,600 per ounce.
Gold traded at US$1,588/oz this afternoon, up US$5 from Friday’s close. Other precious metals moved in the same direction as gold with silver rising 30 cents to US$27.40/oz and platinum climbing US$3 to US$1,444/oz.
Today’s top risers in the sector were:
Condor Gold (LON:CNR), up 21.5 percent at 98.5 pence at midday
Avocet Mining (LON:AVM), up 15 percent at 72.7 pence
Norseman Gold (LON:NGL), up 4.5 percent at 2.9 pence
Arian Silver (LON:AGQ), up 3.5 percent at 15.18 pence
Chaarat Gold (LON:CGH), up 2.5 percent at 21.6 pence
The top fallers in the sector were:
Vatukoula Gold Mines (LON:VGM), down 14 percent at 35.5 pence at midday
Centamin (LON:CEY), down 9 percent at 66.75 pence
SolGold (LON:SOLG), down 7 percent at 4.05 pence
Stratex International (LON:STI), down 4 percent at 5.38 pence
