UAE: Gold prices rise in early trade, 24K up half a dirham per gram

Gold prices edged higher at the opening of the market on Monday, supported by a slight pullback in US Treasury yields, although bullion's outlook remained vulnerable to aggressive interest rate hikes by central banks.

Spot gold was up 0.2 per cent at $1,855.62 per ounce at 9.15am UAE time.

In the UAE, precious metal prices rose half a dirham in line with the global rates.

The Dubai Gold and Jewellery Group data showed 24K trading at Dh224.75 per gram on Monday morning, up by Dh0.50 from its last week’s close. Among the other variants of the yellow metal, 22K was trading at Dh211.0, 21K at Dh201.5 and 18K at Dh172.75.

Gold was still trading below last week's highs with prices dropping about one per cent on Friday after data showed US employers hired more workers than expected in May and maintained a fairly strong pace of wage increases.

"Coming after the recent US job report, market participants will continue to be highly sensitive to any cues on central banks' policy outlook, with guidance from the RBA and ECB on watch this week, along with the key US CPI data," Yeap Jun Rong, a market strategist at IG, told Reuters.

Daniel Dubrovsky, strategist at DailyFX, said the road ahead remains challenging for gold, with the downtrend pause likely a sign of profit-taking or consolidation as markets often do not move in straight lines.

waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com

• Business
• Dubai