Gold slips below $1,180 as safe buying retreats

London: Gold prices slipped below $1,180 an ounce in Europe yesterday, knocked by a dearth of haven buying as confidence in the financial markets improved, though some emergent physical demand limited losses.

Spot gold was bid at $1,177.65 an ounce at 1021 GMT against $1,181.50 late in New York on Friday. US gold futures for Aug-ust delivery fell $4.00 to $1,179.90.

Investment in the precious metal has tailed off over the summer months as assets seen as higher risk like equities firmed at gold's expense. This has helped drag gold from the record $1,264.90 an ounce it hit in June.

"There is currently hardly any great sense in buying gold," said Quantitative Commodity Research consultant Peter Fertig.

"The situation in the southern European countries has eased ... and in the US the market is more concerned about the double-dip recession," he added.

The world's largest bullion exchange-traded fund, the SPDR Gold Trust, saw its biggest outflow in a year last month, with holdings down more than 38 tonnes in July to 1,282.3 tonnes.

Nonetheless lower prices encouraged higher gold demand from key bullion-consuming centres China, India and the Middle East.

Indian gold buying rose yesterday afternoon as traders took advantage of the strong rupee, which made the dollar-quoted asset cheaper, to complete deals, traders said.

Meanwhile imports into major gold consumer Turkey rose to 19.9 tonnes in July, the Istanbul Gold Exchange said, from 14.3 tonnes a year ago and 300 kilograms in June.

Elsewhere, the World Gold Council said the International Monetary Fund sold 17.4 tonnes of gold in June as part of a planned programme of bullion sales. That leaves 120.2 tonnes of gold still to be sold under the programme.

Other industrial precious metals outperformed gold as risk appetite improved. Silver was at $18.11 an ounce versus $17.96, while its ratio to gold — or how many ounces of silver are needed to buy an ounce of gold — hit its lowest since mid-May at 65.0.

Platinum was at $1,579.50 an ounce against $1,566.55, while palladium was at $496.35 against $491.