LONDON: Gold rallied more than 1 per cent on Monday after US President Donald Trump’s failure to push through a healthcare reform package on Friday raised questions over his ability to deliver promised tax cuts and spending plans.

That knocked the dollar to a four-month low versus a basket of currencies and drove a drop in stock markets, with European indices sliding nearly 1pc in early trade and US stocks opening lower.

Spot gold was up 1.2pc at $1,259.11 an ounce by 1350 GMT, having touched a one-month high of $1,261.03.

US gold futures for April delivery were up $10.70 at $1,259.20.

The world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, New York-listed SPDR Gold Shares , reported an outflow of 1.8 tonnes on Friday.

China’s net gold imports via main conduit Hong Kong rose 50.8pc month on month in February to 47.931 tonnes, data showed.

Silver was up 1.9pc at $18.08 an ounce, off an earlier three-week high of $18.124, while platinum gained 1.8pc to $977.80. Palladium was down 0.7pc at $803.65 after hitting a two-year peak of $815.40 on Friday.

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2017