By Polya Lesova
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Gold futures sank Thursday, extending their sharp losses from the previous session. Gold for December delivery fell $44.30 to $1,713 an ounce in electronic trading on Globex. December gold futures dropped $104 Wednesday to settle at $1,757.30 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. "Speculative financial investors are clearly closing long positions on a large scale at present, after the CME Group has increased the margin requirement for gold futures on the COMEX, the world's most important gold futures exchange, for the second time this month," Commerzbank analysts said in a note.
