Gold down slightly on profit-taking

FRANKFURT (Aug 13)   Gold futures traded slightly lower during Tuesday's Asian session, though it appeared the yellow metal suffered from no more than some profit-taking following an impressive showing during Monday trade.

On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold futures for September delivery inched down 0.02% to USD1,334.60 per troy ounce in Asian trading Tuesday. The September contract settled up 1.71% at USD1,334.90 per ounce Monday.

Gold futures were likely to find support at USD1,272.10 a troy ounce, Thursday's low, and resistance at USD1,347.85, the high from July 23.

Gold was buoyed by news that investors are starting to put money back into gold-backed exchange-traded products. Data released Monday revealed that holdings in the SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, increased for the first time since June on Friday.

Assets in the world's largest gold ETF increased 1.8 metric tons to 911.13 metric tons, marking the first increase since June 10.

The SPDR Gold Trust was once the world's second-largest ETF by assets, but has fallen to fifth-largest. At the end of July, the SPDR Gold Trust had seen more than USD19 billion in year-to-date outflows.

Elsewhere, physical gold purchases reportedly remain robust in Asia, led by China and there is speculation that China will soon pass India as the world's largest gold consumer.

The China Gold Association said Monday "that purchases rose 54 percent to 706.4 metric tons in the first half from a year earlier. Demand surged 87 percent for bars and 44 percent for jewelry demand. Last month, futures in New York jumped 7.3 percent, the most since January 2012," according to Bloomberg.

Meanwhile, Comex silver for September delivery fell 0.34% to USD21.267 per ounce while copper for September delivery dropped 0.11% to USD3.308 per ounce.