Gold fell for the first day in four in Asia as the rally to more than $950 an ounce prompted Chinese investors to sell the metal to lock in gains. Bullion gained to $952.92 an ounce yesterday, the highest since July, prompting Chinese arbitragers to sell the metal in overseas markets and buy in Shanghai to take advantage of the price gap, according to Lin Yuhui, at China International Futures Co. Arbitragers profit from disparities in prices of equivalent securities or commodities that are traded on more than one market. “Gold on the international markets hasn’t been able to rally in Asia because funds in China have stepped up arbitrage trading,” Lin said from Shenzhen today. Bullion for immediate delivery fell as much as 0.6 percent to $940.65 an ounce, before trading at $941.05 at 10:09 a.m. in Singapore. The metal is up 3.3 percent for the week as demand for a store of value gains on concern the financial crisis may worsen. Shanghai gold for June delivery added as much as 0.2 percent to 205.99 yuan a gram ($937 an ounce) and stood at 205.48 yuan at the same time, up 3.6 percent this week. Arbitragers “make use of overnight gains in the international market to push up domestic prices,” said Lin. “At the same time, they take profit in the overseas market.” Gold for April delivery was down 0.7 percent at $942.20 in after-hours electronic trading on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, while December-delivery gold in Tokyo was little changed at 2,750 yen a gram ($940 an ounce). Technical Charts Technical charts some traders use to forecast price movements suggested further strength in the metal, which has broken out of a consolidation pattern, signaling “substantial bullish implications for gold in the months ahead,” according to Standard Bank Group Ltd. technical analyst Darran Grabham. “The advance may now take a breather, but we are forecasting additional strength,” said Grabham. Among other precious metals for immediate delivery, silver fell 0.4 percent to $13.4775 an ounce, platinum dropped 0.6 percent to $1,067.50 an ounce, and palladium declined 0.7 percent to $215 an ounce as of 9:54 a.m. in Singapore. To contact the reporter on this story: Glenys Sim in Singapore at

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