Gold tumbles below $1,200 mark

Dubai: Gold fell as much as 1 per cent to trade below the keenly-watched level of $1,200 an ounce on Monday, as a stronger US Dollar made the yellow metal cheaper.

International gold was trading at $1,208 an ounce, after falling to a low of $1,199.60 an ounce, its lowest since Feb. 17, and was on track for its ninth sessions of losses, its longest losing streak of since March 2015.

“Gold may see some more downside to $1,180 levels due to potential sell-off following the firmness in dollar,” Pradeep Unni, head of trading at Richcomm Global Services. Not long ago, gold prices touched a 15-month high of $1,303.82 on May 2.

However huge pent up demand in Asia, which consumes about half of the world production, could keep the downside in prices.

“Even though there is a discount of $19 per ounce on spot prices in India, there has not been a huge pickup in demand. The moment prices drop, there will be huge demand,” Unni said.