LONDON: Gold prices fell on Monday to a more than one-week low as progress in US-China trade talks lifted risk sentiment, taking the sheen off safe-haven bullion even as the dollar weakened.

Spot gold dipped 0.5 per cent to $1,283.65 per ounce by 1245 GMT, having hit $1,283.26, its lowest since April 4. US gold futures fell 0.7pc to $1,286.90 an ounce.

“Gold has clearly lost the upward trajectory that it was on, trying to find new supportive catalysts. We’ve seen continued positive murmuring on the trade negotiations in recent days. That’s obviously a headwind for safe-haven gold,” Capital Economics analyst Ross Strachan said.

Gold fell below $1,300 last week and that was seen as a negative bias in charts used by technical traders, analysts and traders said.

In other metals, increased inflows were observed into platinum, while palladium saw outflows for a seventh consecutive week, analysts at Societe Generale wrote in a note.

Spot platinum fell 1.1pc to $876.30 per ounce and palladium fell 0.7pc to $1,362.24 per ounce. Silver was 0.6pc lower at $14.86 an ounce, after touching its lowest since Dec 26 at $14.82.

Published in Dawn, April 16th, 2019