Gold Slips On Flat Q1 Demand

London (May 21)  Gold gave up Monday’s gains and fell back below $1,300 per ounce on Tuesday, touching a low of $1,286, before stabilising around $1,294 in mid-afternoon trading. Market appetite for gold may have been dampened by the latest quarterly figures from the World Gold Council, which showed that demand for gold was broadly flat during the first quarter, as a rise in jewellery demand was offset by reduced investment and central bank demand.

The main routes by which traders and investors gain exposure to gold are exchange-traded gold funds such as the $33bn SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE: GLD.US) ETF, which was down by 1% at $124.59 soon after US markets opened, paring its year-to-date gains to just 5.6%. Meanwhile, a London-listed alternative, Gold Bullion Securities (LSE: GBS), was down 0.3% at $124.22, reducing its gains for 2014 to just 3.4%.