BLBG:Gold Advances as Central Banks Join Investors Adding to Holdings
Gold rose as central banks joined investors in adding to holdings and the euro strengthened against the dollar before regional leaders meet today. Silver traded near a five-week high.
Gold rallied 11 percent this year as investors and central banks bought bullion to diversify assets. Holdings in ETPs backed by bullion rose to a record 2,605.318 metric tons yesterday, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Kazakhstan, Turkey and Russia boosted reserves in October, according to data on the International Monetary Fund’s website, joining Brazil, which raised holdings to the highest in more than 11 years.
“We think this is a positive signal for the market and expect moderate price gains in the days ahead,” Tobias Merath, head of commodities and alternative investments research at Credit Suisse AG’s private banking unit, wrote in a report today, referring to the central bank purchases. “The focus will be on events in Europe.” U.S. markets are closed for Thanksgiving.
Spot gold rose as much as 0.2 percent to $1,732.65 an ounce before trading at $1,729.47 at 9:18 a.m. in London. Gold for delivery in December rose 0.1 percent to $1,729.30 an ounce in electronic trading on the Comex in New York.
Gold also gained as the euro rose to a two-week high against the U.S. dollar before before leaders of the 27 European Union member nations gather today for budget talks. Finance ministers from the 17-nation currency bloc will resume talks on aid for Greece next week.
The U.S. Mint sold 67,000 ounces of gold coins so far in November, more than the 59,000 ounces for all of October, according to figures on the mint’s website. At that pace, total sales for the month would be 100,500 ounces, up 145 percent from a year earlier.
Silver was little changed at $33.34 an ounce, after gaining as much as 0.3 percent to $33.4525 in earlier trade. Platinum for immediate delivery gained gained 0.4 percent to $1,583.75 an ounce and palladium advanced 0.9 percent to $652.50 an ounce.
To contact the reporters on this story: Maria Kolesnikova in London at mkolesnikova@bloomberg.net; Glenys Sim in Singapore at gsim4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Deane at jdeane3@bloomberg.net
