Gold rose to about $1,360 an ounce, which is almost at par with last week's record; on speculations that fluctuating value of global currencies will undermine investments thus encouraging investors to invest in bullion.
Investors have shown increased interest in Europe and this helped the ETF Securities Ltd.'s gold funds to surge to nearly 8.9 million ounces yesterday, the highest since July 20. Raised forecasts by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., UniCredit SpA and Citigroup Inc. also helped boosting gold value but the main rally came from the dollar's depreciation. The dollar today declined 0.4 percent against the euro, after falling nearly 7 percent in September.
Gold futures climbed to $1,359.35 an ounce by 10:44 a.m. in London, a little drop from $1,360.05 an ounce, earlier today, which is a rise of $9, or 0.7 percent. The recent raise represents the highest price since the record $1,364.77 an ounce on Oct. 7.
Futures for December delivery also saw an up tick of 0.9 percent to $1,359.10 an ounce on the Comex in New York. In Shanghai, gold futures for December delivery reached 293.2 Yuan a gram, or $1,367 an ounce, which is the all-time high.
Analysts say the gold will surge again if the U.S. Federal Reserve announced further quantitative easing. Goldman Sachs has forecasted gold price to reach $1,650 an ounce in 12 months, if things remain in bullion's favor; Citigroup's "short and medium term" forecast for gold is $1,450 an ounce.
Silver also rose 0.9 percent to $23.535 an ounce, and platinum surged 0.9 percent to close at $1,697.50 an ounce.
