Gold prices steadied at their highest in about four weeks on Tuesday. The move was backed by investors’ concerns over the mess in Europe about a Greek debt default.

A Wall Street Journal report that Germany could make concessions on efforts to put together a bailout for Greece lifted the euro and boosted equities and base metals at the expense of perceived safe-havens such as gold or bonds.

Spot gold XAU= hit an intraday high of $1,540.36, its highest since May 4, before slipping to $1,536.70 an ounce by 1000 GMT, down 0.08 percent. June gold futures GCM1 were up 0.1 percent at $1,537.50.

Yet gold is down 1.7 percent so far in May, hovering below a lifetime high around $1,575 touched early in the month and, although it has been a beneficiary of the investor nervousnessover Greece, it has struggled to retain its gains.

Gold holdings are still down by over 500,000 ounces this month and down 0.68 pct in the year-to-date, but bullion ETFs have lured in more cash in May than other precious metals.

On the futures markets, speculators increased their holdings of gold for the first time since mid-April last week, according to data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, bringing total futures open interest to its highest since April 19.

"It's crucial for markets to see whether Greece is actually sustainable and whether it can actually obtain the next 12 billion euros that is required for them to meet their funding needs in July," said Ong Yi Ling, investment analyst at Phillip Futures in Singapore.

"I think silver was going up too fast and within too short a period of time. But I think on a longer-term basis after the sell off, you see that investors are slowly coming back."