Gold firmed on Wednesday and was poised to post its best quarterly performance since the first quarter of 2008, helped by dollar weakness and technical momentum. Spot gold was at $996.30 per ounce at 0613 GMT, up 0.6 percent against the notional close in New York of $990.70, supported by Wednesday's retreat in the greenback.
US gold futures for December delivery were at $997.80 per ounce on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, up 0.4 percent from Tuesday, when the contract rose 30 cents. Bullion is set to rise for the fourth quarter in a row in the July-September period, climbing almost 8 percent and marking its strongest performance since it gained 9.9 percent in the January-March quarter of 2008.
It rallied to an 18-month high of $1,023.85 an ounce earlier this month, just a few dollars shy of the March 2008 record peak of $1,030.80. It has since succumbed to profit-taking, with a dollar bounce from a one-year low marked last week keeping bullion investors largely on the sidelines.