LONDON: Gold was on track to end the week barely changed as the market awaited more signs about the timing of an expected US interest rate rise from the US Fed.

Spot gold was up 0.2 per cent on Thursday at $1,269.21 an ounce by 1430 GMT while US gold futures rose by a similar margin to $1,269.70 per ounce. It has traded in a range of around $16 over the last week.

“There is a lack of impulse to be able up push prices higher. The billion dollar question is still ‘when is the Fed going to hike,’” Quantitative Commodity Research analyst Peter Fertig said. According to estimates from Macquarie, Chinese gold imports in September jumped 58pc to $6 billion or 118 tonnes compared to August, but are down 25pc from a year ago.

SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, said its holdings fell 1.49pc to 942.59 tonnes on Wednesday.

Silver was up 0.2pc at $17.61 an ounce, while platinum was flat at $961. Platinum rose to an over two-week high of $970.80 on Wednesday. Palladium fell 1.5pc to $612.40 per ounce.

Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2016