LONDON: Gold steadied on Monday near to the 3-1/2 month highs hit last week as investors waited for US President Donald Trump to outline plans for tax cuts, infrastructure spending, levies on imports and foreign policy.

Spot gold rose 0.2 per cent to $1,258.5 an ounce at 1443 GMT, having touched its highest since Nov 11 at $1,260.10 on Friday.

US gold futures rose 0.1pc to $1,259.3. Trump is due to address Congress on Tuesday.

Analysts also expect nervousness ahead of elections in the Netherlands, France and Germany to help to buoy gold prices over the course of this year but say that US interest rates are also important.

“Most of the market still expects the US Federal Reserve to pass on raising rates for now. We would agree with this consensus view,” said INTL FCStone analyst Edward Meir. “This could offer gold more upside, at least going into March.”

Bets on higher prices can be seen in data from the CFTC, showing hedge funds and money managers holding larger net long positions in COMEX gold, reaching the highest in nearly three months during the week to Feb 21.

Holdings of the largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, New York’s SPDR Gold Trust , have also risen more than 5pc this month.

However, attempts to push prices higher have met strong resistance in recent days at $1,260, near the 200-day moving average, traders said. Spot silver gained 0.1pc to $18.37 an ounce.

Platinum gained 1.7pc to $1,040.7, having earlier marked its strongest in nearly five months at $1,041.70. Palladium rose 1.6pc to $780.4.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2017