Gold and silver extended their losing streak to a fourth session on Monday to trade near their lowest in more than four years as a stronger US dollar fuelled more selling and further declines were seen. Precious metals took a beating on Friday after the Bank of Japan's surprise decision to boost its already huge bond-buying stimulus prompted the yen to fall to a seven-year low against the dollar.
"It's pretty hard to find anything bullish on gold at the moment," said ANZ analyst Victor Thianpiriya, adding that currency movements, weak physical demand and fund outflows were all taking a toll on prices. Spot gold dropped as much as 1 percent to $1,161.70 an ounce, before recovering to trade at $1,171.06 by 0720 GMT, down 0.2 percent.
It fell to $1,161.25 on Friday, the lowest since July 2010, before closing down 2 percent. Spot silver fell to $15.72 an ounce, its lowest since February 2010. Platinum was trading near its lowest in a month. The $1,180 level - which gold broke through on Friday - was seen as a significant one for bullion, with chartists now eyeing prices below $1,000. The last time gold traded below that level was in October 2009. Gold stocks in Australia, the world's no. 2 producer, also took a hit following the drop in gold prices. Australia's largest producer, Newcrest Mining Ltd, dropped nearly 8 percent, while St Barbara Mines lost more than 4 percent and Evolution Mining was down almost 12 percent.
Comments
Comments are closed.