Gold rose around 1.5 percent in heavy trading on Monday, notching its biggest one-day gain in a month as renewed hopes for further US monetary easing fuelled bullion buying as a hedge against long-term inflation and economic uncertainty. Options-related buying also helped as prices gravitate toward the $1,700 an ounce ahead of Tuesday's COMEX March options expiry, traders said.
Spot gold was up 1.4 percent at $1,685.16 by 2:17 pm EDT (1817 GMT), having earlier hit a two-week high of $1,687.90. US gold futures for April delivery settled up $23.20 an ounce at $1,685.60, with trading volume 25 percent higher than its 30-day average, preliminary Reuters data showed. Silver also rose 1.7 percent to $32.76 an ounce. Spot platinum was up 1.3 percent at $1,640.74 an ounce, while spot palladium was up 1.6 percent at $664.22 an ounce.