Gold remained steady during Monday deals after its sharpest fall in four months in the previous session, as inflation concerns and sovereign debt issues in Europe offered support.

Spot gold XAU= was little changed at $1,366.95 an ounce by 0331 GMT, after falling three percent on Friday as talks of an imminent interest rates hike in China triggered a broad sell-off across the financial markets.

Debt woes in Europe continued to brew, with Ireland on Sunday saying it did not rule out the possibility that it may have to turn to Europe for help in dealing with its debt crisis.

Leadership meetings of the Group of 20 and APEC held last week largely failed to offer guidance on currency issues vexing the global economy.

"G20 and APEC meetings last week didn't really give a clear direction to the market," said Peter Fung, head of the dealing department at Wing Fung Precious Metals, "The market is mixed from here on, with today's range likely to be $1,350 to $1,380 today."

While some short-covering was spotted in the market, others were seen liquidating long positions, as the market takes a breather from the record-breaking rally, Fung said.

Also offering support to the market, Vietnam has abolished the import duty on gold in another effort to cool domestic prices of the metal after it has granted gold import quotas last week, a state-run newspaper reported.

Precious metals prices at 0331 GMT

Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Turnover
Spot Gold 1366.95 0.60 +0.04 24.76
Spot Silver 26.10 0.11 +0.42 55.08
Spot Platinum 1672.74 -6.26 -0.37 14.02
Spot Palladium 675.00 -0.50 -0.07 66.46
TOCOM Gold 3642.00 -42.00 -1.14 11.75 67848
TOCOM Platinum 4501.00 -94.00 -2.05 2.74 16911
TOCOM Silver 69.60 -1.70 -2.38 34.62 2847
TOCOM Palladium 1800.00 -43.00 -2.33 54.51 1240
euro/dollar 1.3699
Dollar/Yen 82.65

TOCOM prices in yen per gram. Spot prices in $ per ounce.