Gold inched up on Thursday, supported by physical buying and as the dollar remained under pressure, but a weaker yuan amid worries of looming US tariffs on China capped the metal's gains. Spot gold was up 0.1 percent at $1,197.38 at 0649 GMT, after rising 0.5 percent in the previous session. US gold futures rose 0.1 percent at $1,202 an ounce.
"A bit of weakness in the US dollar has stabilized some of the selling (in gold) we saw earlier in the week," ANZ analyst Daniel Hynes said. "That was also supported by relatively positive signs of physical demand, in particular in India. That seems to have also boosted sentiment a little," Hynes said, adding that a further weakness in the greenback should help gold sustain the momentum.
Gold has tumbled more than 12 percent from a peak of $1,365.23 in April. Present levels have recently invoked a lot of physical buying in not just active gold buying countries like India and China, but in southeast Asia for investment purposes too, traders and analysts said.
India's gold imports more than doubled in August to hit their highest level in 15 months as lower prices prompted manufacturers to replenish inventory. Technical indicators showed the metal was likely to move in a range of $1,160 and $1,238 over the next four weeks, according to Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao.