Gold hits three-week low as growth woes retreat to lift equities, dollar

Bengaluru

GOLD prices slipped to a more than three-week low on Tuesday as waning global economic slowdown concerns lifted the dollar and equity markets.

Spot gold was flat at US$1,286.85 per ounce by 0332 GMT, after touching its lowest since March 8 at $1,285.80 earlier in the session.

US gold futures were down about 0.2 per cent at US$1,291.30 an ounce.

"Concerns we saw emerge in the past few weeks around economic growth has certainly eased and that shift (in sentiment) in the past day or two resulted in little bit of selling in gold market," ANZ analyst Daniel Hynes said.

"Most of the global growth is coming from China and the (Chinese) data over the weekend eased those concerns."

Strong manufacturing data from the United States and China triggered a massive sell-off in the US bond market, which in turn lifted Asian equities to seven-month highs.

Indicating investor sentiment for bullion, holdings in the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust, fell 1.5 per cent on Monday, its biggest one-day percentage decline in a month.

On the technical front, US$1,275 to US$1,280 an ounce level remains the key longer-term support for gold, according to an OANDA note.

Among other precious metals, spot palladium was down 0.6 per cent at US$1,412.16 an ounce, after rising the most since late February in the previous session.

Silver was down 0.4 per cent at US$15.05 an ounce, while platinum rose 0.2 per cent to US$849.37 an ounce. REUTERS