LONDON: Gold steadied on Tuesday ahead of a Federal Reserve policy meeting, remaining near an eight-month low, with investors unwilling to place big bets as they awaited clues on the timing of the first US rate rise in eight years.

Spot gold was flat on the day at $1,232.80 an ounce by 1415 GMT. The metal posted its biggest weekly fall since late May last week on a stronger dollar and fell to its lowest since January at $1,225.30 on Monday before recovering.

US gold futures lost $1.80 an ounce to reach $1,233.40.

“In the longer term the bearish view for gold has not changed as the dollar has strengthened quite a bit since the beginning of July and US data improved,” Natixis analyst Bernard Dahdah said.

“But if the Fed holds the same tone, I don’t see any particular change in the price of gold over the next few days.”

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2014