LONDON: Gold fell to a near four-month low on Tuesday as the dollar climbed ahead of an emergency euro zone summit on Greece with the country’s banks rapidly running out of cash.

Gold, usually seen as an alternative investment in times of financial and economic uncertainty, has so far failed to see significant safe-haven buying due to the ongoing Greek crisis as fears of contagion seem to be limited, traders said.

Spot gold dropped to its lowest since March 18 at $1,154.45 an ounce earlier and was down 1 per cent at $1,158.15 an ounce by 1341 GMT, while US gold futures dropped 1.5pc to $1,155.90 an ounce.

Gold weakness and dollar strength also hit the rest of the precious metals complex, with silver down 4pc at $15.13 an ounce, its lowest for the year.

Palladium fell 2.7pc to a two-year low of $659.20 an ounce and platinum dropped to its lowest since March 2009 at $1,039.75 an ounce.

Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2015

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