Gold Silver Reports → Gold’s rally faltered, with bullion set for the first back-to-back daily loss in a month, as rising share markets and a firmer yuan sapped demand for haven assets.
Bullion for immediate delivery fell as much as 1.3 percent to $1,221.91 an ounce and traded at $1,224.06 at 10:40 a.m. in Singapore. The metal lost 0.7 percent on Friday after surging to $1,263.48 on Feb. 11, the highest level since February 2015.
Gold has been the best performer this year, up 15 percent, as a weakening global economy, the spread of negative interest rates and prospects for a weaker yuan spurred demand. On Monday, equity markets rose and the Chinese currency gained, strengthening risk appetite after a rally in U.S. stocks on Friday.
“We’ve seen a massive rebound in” U.S. equities on Friday, Bernard Aw, a market strategist at IG Asia Pte in Singapore, said by phone. “So this actually means some kind of short-term reversal in risk sentiment toward more risk appetite.”
Holdings in bullion-backed exchange-traded products increased 0.3 percent to 1,592.3 metric tons on Friday, the highest since July, They’ve expanded 8.9 percent this year.
Bullion of 99.99 percent purity surged as much as 6.6 percent to 259.95 yuan a gram ($1,229.92 an ounce) on the Shanghai Gold Exchange as trade resumed after the week-long Lunar New Year break. In other precious metals, spot silver lost as much as 2.7 percent to $15.3197 an ounce, while platinum and palladium retreated 1.1 percent. → Neal Bhai Reports
