Gold and silver took a steady pace on Thursday as a weaker dollar and growing oil prices further drove investors’ sentiment.
The dollar dropped as much as 0.4 percent against a basket of currencies, boosting buying interest in dollar-denominated commodities, while higher oil prices stoked inflation worries, increasing gold's appeal as a safe-haven investment.
Spot gold was little changed at $1,494.86 an ounce by 0617 GMT, below the 30-day average at $1,499.67. U.S. gold GCcv1 was nearly flat at $1,494.70.
"We are seeing signs of bottoming-out in gold as the dollar has weakened, but $1,500 remains a very contested level," said Li Ning, an analyst at Shanghai CIFCO Futures.
The gold-silver ratio, used to measure how many ounces of silver can buy one ounce of gold, dropped to a one-week low of 42.59, off the three-month high above 44 hit earlier in the week.
Technical analysis suggested that spot gold may revisit the May 13 high of $1,516.40 per ounce, said Reuters market analyst Wang Tao.
Global gold investment in the first quarter increased by 26 percent in tonnage terms to 310.5 tonnes, helping push up total bullion demand by 11 percent to 981.3 tonnes, the industry-funded World Gold Council said.
Investors favoured coins and bars over exchange traded funds, causing the first net quarterly outflow from gold ETFs since mid-2007.
The trend continued into the second quarter, with holdings in the SPDR Gold Trust , the world's largest gold ETF, slipping to a one-year low of 1,191.344 tonnes by May 18.
Precious metals prices 0617 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Volume
Spot Gold 1494.86 -1.44 -0.10 5.31
Spot Silver 35.07 0.06 +0.17 13.64
Spot Platinum 1773.49 10.09 +0.57 0.34
Spot Palladium 730.97 2.09 +0.29 -8.57
TOCOM Gold 3933.00 34.00 +0.87 5.47 47695
TOCOM Platinum 4716.00 38.00 +0.81 0.43 15892
TOCOM Silver 91.90 2.50 +2.80 13.46 2083
TOCOM Palladium 1931.00 31.00 +1.63 -7.92 281
COMEX GOLD JUN1 1494.70 -1.10 -0.07 5.16 17353
COMEX SILVER JUL1 35.08 -0.02 -0.05 13.38 5298
euro/Dollar 1.4262
Dollar/Yen 81.64
TOCOM prices in yen per gram. Spot prices in $ per ounce.