LONDON: Gold fell more than 1 per cent on Monday as traders cashed in gains that took the metal to five-month highs last week, with the wider markets shrugging off news that an anti-austerity party had won elections in Greece.

Spot gold was down 1.3 per cent at $1,277.41 an ounce by 1529 GMT, off an earlier low of $1,275.75. US gold futures for February delivery were down $15.10 at $1,277.50.

CME Group’s Asian gold contract began trading in Hong Kong on Monday. The 1 kg physically settled contract was trading at a premium of $2-$3 an ounce over the global benchmark.

The launch of the CME contract within six months of new contracts in Singapore and China underscores a desire in top consuming region Asia to have price benchmarks that reflect regional market dynamics, although liquidity has been a problem.

Meanwhile silver was down 1.8pc at $17.92 an ounce, while platinum was down 0.7pc at $1,252.50 an ounce and palladium was down 0.5pc at $766.97 an ounce.

Published in Dawn January 27th, 2015

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