BENGALURU: Gold fell for a seventh straight session on Monday, hitting its lowest in a month as the dollar jumped to 16-month highs on the back of political uncertainty in Europe and the US Federal Reserve’s hawkish stance on interest rates.

Spot gold fell 0.2 per cent to $1,206.55 per ounce at 1110GMT, having touched a one-month low of $1,203.36 earlier in the session. US gold futures edged 0.2pc lower to $1,206.6 per ounce.

“The main driver has been some renewed dollar strengthening... due to political uncertainty in UK and Italy,” said Saxo Bank analyst Ole Hansen. “Gold is facing a bit of an uphill struggle due to the dollar strength.” The metal posted its biggest weekly drop since August last week after the Fed reaffirmed its monetary tightening stance, seen as a negative for non-yielding bullion.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was up 0.5pc on Monday.

The greenback benefited from a broader move away from riskier assets due to US-Sino trade tensions, China’s economic slowdown, Brexit uncertainty, and the standoff between Rome and the European Union over Italy’s budget plan.

In other precious metals, silver was down 0.1pc at $14.14 per ounce, having touched its lowest since Sept 18 at $14.06 in the previous session.

Palladium fell 0.9pc to $1,106.22 per ounce, while platinum was flat at $848.99 an ounce.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2018