LONDON: Gold fell on Wednesday, holding near the 2019 lows touched in the previous session, as robust economic data from China assuaged concerns about global growth and drove investors to riskier assets.

Spot gold was down 0.1 per cent to $1,274.73 per ounce at 10:27am EDT (1427) GMT, having fallen as much as 1.2pc to $1,272.70, its lowest since Dec 27, on Tuesday US gold futures were flat at $$1,277.10 an ounce.

Gold prices have fallen more than 5pc since scaling a 10-month peak in February.

On the technical front, gold’s break below the psychologically significant $1,300 mark and other key support levels, including the 100- and 50-day moving averages, signalled a further downside to prices, analysts and traders said.

Further weakness in gold is possible in the near term, potentially testing the $1,259 level, which is likely to hold, Commerzbank analysts wrote in a note.

Indicative of current sentiment, holdings of SPDR Gold Trust , the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, fell to a near six-month low of 752.27 tonnes on Tuesday. Holdings have fallen 4.5pc so far this year.

On the flip side, gold prices were likely to climb to $1,400, while silver could rise to $17 by end-2019 since overall weak economic growth globally could take a toll on both equity prices and risk appetite, analysts at Capital Economics said in a note.

Gold is considered a safe store of value during times of economic or political uncertainty.

“That said, we expect risk appetite to gradually return as the US economy picks up.” Silver gained 0.1pc to $14.99 an ounce.

Meanwhile, spot platinum rose 1.1pc to $885.95 per ounce, while palladium climbed 2.1pc to $1,378.40.

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2019