BENGALURU: Gold scaled a one-week peak on Tuesday as the dollar was under pressure ahead of a US Federal Reserve meeting, with investors awaiting clarity on the future course of monetary tightening by the central bank.

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is widely expected to raise interest rates at its two-day meeting starting later in the day, but the focus will be on its outlook for 2019.

“A lot of investors are expecting that the Fed will defer interest rate hikes and may not look to raise them quickly,” said Brian Lan, managing director at dealer GoldSilver Central in Singapore.

“Investors are hoping gold prices will go up further after the meeting. $1,251 would be the next level that gold will likely test with support at $1,245.”

Spot gold was up 0.22 per cent at $1,248.52 per ounce, as of 0813 GMT. Prices touched their highest since Dec 11 at $1,249.04 earlier in the session.

Among other precious metals, silver rose 0.29pc to $14.70, while platinum slipped 0.63pc to $788.49 per ounce. Spot palladium inched down 0.4pc to $1,253.15 per ounce, after touching a record high of $1,269.5 in the previous session.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2018