Retail gold prices in Dubai edge down slightly

Spot gold drops 0.5% to $1,171.66 an ounce on Monday morning, while U.S. gold futures slides nearly 1%

Dubai: Gold was retailing slightly lower in Dubai on Monday compared to a day earlier, but prices were still higher than a week ago.

 

The price for 24-carat gold stood at Dh141 per gram as of 11:30am in Dubai, down only 50 fils from Sunday, but up nearly Dh2 from a week earlier. The price for 22K was pegged at Dh134, while 21K and 18K retailed at Dh128.25 and Dh111 per gram, respectively.

Spot gold dropped 0.5 per cent to $1,171.66 an ounce by 0639 GMT, while U.S. gold futures slid nearly one per cent, according to a Reuters report.

 The majority of retail investors had earlier predicted that gold will continue to rally this week on lower expectations of an interest rate increase this year.

In a survey conducted by Kitco, 78 per cent of 288 retail investors said they are optimistic on the bullion’s performance this week, while only 16 per cent were bearish and 6 per cent were neutral.

Among market professionals, however, fewer (57 per cent) were betting on gold’s rally to continue, 29 per cent were bearish and 14 per cent were neutral.

Some analysts are not seeing any further price movements in favour of gold this week since the US Federal Reserve is not expected to hold any meeting or issue a statement that could impact the US dollar.

Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, noted that many investors remain “lukewarm” to the precious metal “but following three major short-covering rallies since August, the selling appetite seems to be fading.”

With the broader macro environment starting to show some support for gold, Hansen said “the current price action still shows how investors remain unconvinced and that stronger evidence of an improved outlook is need in order to shift sentiment.”

“So the big question is now whether gold just like silver will be able to break its previous highs thereby helping to improve the technical outlook. Gold needs to break its August high at $1,171/oz in order for the higher lows seen since July to have any positive price impact.”

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