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Gold prices increase on markets

31 August 2009 15:20 (UTC +04:00)

Bakuâ€“ APA-Economics. Gold rose for a fifth day, the longest run of increases in more than a month, as the dollar weakened on signs a recovery in global economies may be accelerating, Bloomberg reports.
Bullion climbed as positive economic data weakened demand for the U.S. currency, driving the Dollar Index lower. An Institute of Supply Management report due tomorrow in the U.S. may show manufacturing expanded for the first in 19 months, according to a survey of economists.

Gold for immediate delivery rose as much as 0.6 percent to $960.75 an ounce and last traded at $955.61 at 1:46 p.m. in Singapore. The precious metal has advanced 8.4 percent this year. The dollar weakened to 92.76 against the yen and Dollar Index was little changed after dropping as much as 0.3 percent earlier.

Hedge-fund managers and other large speculators increased net-long position in New York gold futures in the week ended Aug. 25, according to U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data.

Speculative long positions, or bets prices will rise, outnumbered short positions by 182,982 contracts on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, the Washington based commission said in its Commitments of Traders report. Net long positions rose by 5,452 contracts, or 3 percent, from a week earlier.

Gold holdings in the SPDR Gold Trust, the biggest exchange traded fund backed by bullion, were unchanged for a third day as of Aug. 28 at 1,061.83 metric tons, the lowest since March 13, according to figures on the companyâ€™s Web site. The net asset value of the Trust was $32.6 billion.

Among other precious metals for immediate delivery, silver slipped 0.3 percent to $14.69 an ounce, platinum advanced 0.3 percent to $1,246 an ounce and palladium gained 0.4 percent to $289.50 an ounce at 1:53 p.m. in Singapore.