Gold moved higher during Thursday trades further accumulating its gains boosted by inflation concerns which prompt central banks to raise their interest rates.

China hiked rates by 25 basis points on Wednesday, and the European Central Bank is expected to follow suit later on Thursday.

"The rate move reignited the inflation issue and people started to think that it is more of an issue than expected," said Jonathan Barratt, managing director at Commodity Broking Services in Sydney.

"We can safely agree that the $1,480 to $1,500 level has been established as a medium-term support and chances that we break below it towards the end of the year are pretty rare. We've found the bottom."

Spot gold dipped briefly below $1,480 an ounce on July 1 to a one-and-a-half month low of $1,478.01, but had risen 3.7 percent from this level to $1,532.61 an ounce by 0609 GMT.

It hit a two-week high of $1,533.45 in the previous session, just over $40 below the record high above $1,575 seen at the start of May.

U.S. gold GCcv1 edged up 0.3 percent to $1,533.20.

Holdings in the SPDR Gold Trust , the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, remained unchanged at 1,205.809 tonnes, their lowest since mid-June.