Gold held near $1,100 an ounce on Monday, lifted by concerns over the outlook for the currency markets as traders wait to see whether a meeting of Eurogroup ministers will result in more support for debt-laden Greece.
Spot gold was bid at $1,099.60 an ounce at 1704 GMT, against $1,092.40 late in New York on Friday. US gold futures for April delivery on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange rose $10.20 to $1,100.20 an ounce.
Gold priced in euros rose to a peak of 808.14 euros an ounce, just below its record high of 812.43 euros an ounce set in December. "You would hope gold would be doing well, given all the problems in Greece, with government debts and so on," said VM Group analyst Matthew Turner. "The Greece crisis has been a bit overblown, but it is still...causing nervousness among investors," he added. "The solution to all these debt problems seem to be either devaluation or inflation, both of which are gold supportive." On the physical markets, India's wholesale gold demand cooled off on Monday as prices edged towards the most-watched $1,100 an ounce mark, after offtake picked up for most of last week, dealers said.
Holdings of the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, the SPDR Gold Trust, were unchanged at 1,106.378 tonnes on Friday. Among other precious metals, silver was bid at $15.49 an ounce against $15.48.
The world's largest silver ETF, the iShares Silver Trust, said its holdings rose 48.84 tonnes or 0.5 percent from the previous business day to 9,446.40 tonnes as of February 12. ETF Securities said holdings of its ETFS Physical Silver ETP hit a record high last week, reaching 25.3 million ounces by Friday. Platinum was at $1,511.50 an ounce against $1,512.50, while palladium was at $416.50 against $414.50.
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