Gold sparkles amid global volatility

Gold is shining and touched two-month high on January 23. The major factors behind appreciation in gold prices amid turmoil in world economy were Brexit and Trump’s presidency in 2016.

Gold prices opened in the green and rose 0.65 per cent and was hovering at 28924 on an intra-day basis. Meanwhile, gold prices were trading at USD 1219.2 per ounce and witnessed increment of USD 11.5 at spot change.

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has given investors bullish gold views. The CFTC reported that speculators raised their net long positions during the week to 17 January in COMEX gold contracts for the second straight week.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch also observed that in the last week, precious metal funds had their biggest inflows in five months. Holdings of SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, rose 0.2 per cent to 809.15 tonnes on January 20.

Philadelphia Federal Reserve President Patrick Harker also sighted about three interest rate hikes in 2017 if the labour market improves further and inflation moves to the Federal Reserve's 2 per cent goal.