Gold stable after deepest fall since mid-November

Gold steadied on Wednesday, a day after its largest sell-off in nearly two months, buoyed by consumer demand, which helped offset the potentially negative impact of the dollar extending gains after upbeat US data.

The rise in the dollar against a basket of currencies acted as a headwind to gold, which usually profits from weakness in the greenback, yet the drop in price has encouraged some opportunistic buying from jewellers and other consumers of physical metal. Spot gold was last largely unchanged on the day at $1,380.25 an ounce by 1150 GMT, after posting its biggest daily loss since November 12. on Tuesday. US gold rose by 0.1 per cent to $1,380.40. Silver fell for a third consecutive session, under pressure from the strength in the dollar and a decline on the equity markets. Spot silver was last down by 1.8 per cent at $29.23 an ounce. Spot platinum fell to a one-week low at $1,708.75 before recovering to $1,715.75, still down 2.1 per cent on the day, while palladium fell by 2.7 per cent to $754.22.