LONDON: Gold rallied on Tuesday as a strong performance from centrist presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron in a French election debate and fading expectations for near term US interest rate hikes pushed the dollar to a six-week low versus the euro.

Weakness in the US currency helped pull the metal off early lows hit after a sharp drop in Asian trading hours, as a failure to overcome chart resistance prompted speculative selling following a four-day rally.

Spot gold was at $1,242.11 an ounce at 1537 GMT, up 0.8 per cent, after earlier touching its highest since March 2 at $1,242.81 an ounce.

US gold futures for April delivery were up $8.80 at $1,242.80.

“We’re back down below 100 on the dollar index, and that is tied in with the less aggressive rate hike expectations that we heard last week from the Fed,” Mistubishi analyst Jonathan Butler said. “The fact that we’re now at a six-week low in the dollar is obviously feeding into some of the strength in gold.”

Holdings of the largest gold-backed exchange traded fund, New York-listed SPDR Gold Shares, fell another 3.8 tonnes on Monday, a third day of decline.

Silver was up 0.6pc meanwhile at $17.51, while platinum was 0.2pc higher at $969.20. Palladium, outperforming other precious metals, was up 1pc at $787, having earlier touched its highest in more than a month at $792.90 an ounce.

Published in Dawn, March 22nd, 2017